Stan Chee dot Com

There are HUGE benefits to promoting affiliate programs with your own home-based Internet business, and I’ve come up with a list of 15 great reasons to become an affiliate marketer.

Let’s look at each reason separately:

1. No Production Costs - The cost to develop and produce a new product is prohibitive for almost anyone who wants to start a home-based business. With affiliate programs,production costs aren’t an issue. The product has been developed and proven - all on the merchant’s nickel.

2. Low Cost Set-up - Compared with building a brick and mortar store, starting a home-based Internet business is relatively cheap. You probably already have a desk, Internet-connected computer and word-processing software, which is all the equipment you may need.

3. No Fees for Joining or Licenses to Buy - I often compare doing business as an affiliate, with distributing a line of products in the real world. The biggest difference is that the distributor must often pay for a license to distribute products within a limited geographic region. Affiliate programs, on the other hand, are usually free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only by the
affiliate’s ability to promote his web site. Continue reading “15 Reasons to Become an Affiliate Marketer”

If you’re a blogger, chances are you’ve heard of trackbacks. Most likely, you probably don’t know what these are and what they have to do with your blog. That’s alright, as most people don’t quite understand how trackbacks work and why they are useful for a blog.

What are trackbacks?

The concept of trackbacks is a bit hard to explain. So I’ll use an example to explain it in the best way possible…

OK, say you see a great blog post on another person’s blog and want to link to it on your blog. You could do this the old-fashioned way by manually putting a link on your site to that blog. However, if you do it this way, the person whose blog post you are linking to won’t know that you are linking to them unless you tell them.

This is where trackbacks come in. A trackback is a program which will notify the owner of a blog when one of their posts has been linked to at another blog.

How do they work?

A blog that has a trackback system set up will have a link at the bottom of every blog post. This link will say something like “Blog This!” Anyone who clicks the link can then put a link to that blog post on their site. The person who posted the original blog will then be notified via email that their blog posting has been linked to. Additionally, the link that was clicked (“BlogThis!”) will change to “Trackbacks”. From that point forward, the “Trackbacks” link will keep track of how many people have
chosen to blog about that particular post. So after the first trackback, it will say “Trackbacks: 1”. The number of trackbacks recorded will be updated as they occur.

Why are trackbacks important to blog traffic?

The easy answer is that trackbacks are important because they increase awareness of your blog. Trackbacks also make a blog seem more credible. After all, people have to think your posts are good enough to be tracked back.

Anytime a person makes a trackback on your blog, they make a post on their own blog about your blog. This, in turn, lets their readers know about your blog. Chances are, their readers will want to visit your blog to see what the big deal is. If they see something on your blog that they like, they’ll keep coming back for more, which means you’ll have a whole new fan-base of readers. That means more traffic for your blog.

Can you imagine what would happen if 5 different bloggers track-back a post on your blog? Depending on how popular their blog is, that’s potentially as much as hundreds of new readers for your blog! Pretty incredible, right?

Also, every trackback made, assuming it is a legitimate one (and some trackbacks are spam, especially if they are there only to link to another site) adds credibility to your blog. Blogs with
high amounts of trackbacks look credible because lots of people like the posts enough to trackback them.

How can I increase the number of trackbacks I get?

The easiest and best way to increase trackbacks is to frequently post. If you post frequently (2-3 times a week), people will have quite a few posts that they can trackback. However, it is important to make sure that your posts are of a good quality. Quality blog posts are those that people can relate to and are easy to read. If you post a long boring rant, people probably won’t want to trackback that. But if you post a decent sized rant that is entertaining (and that people are likely to agree with), you’ll get tracked back.

The number of trackbacks you get is totally dependent on the number of visitors your blog receives and how frequently you are able to make quality posts. If you’ve got a good amount of visitors and write good blog posts, you’ll get trackbacks.

Trackbacks are a wonderful thing for every blog. You are able to know when your blog posting has been posted about at another blog, plus you potentially gain more visitors. It’s a win-win situation for you!

If you run a site and are looking to get it listed quickly on search engines, there really is no easier and quicker way than to also put a blog on the site. It is a known fact that search engine spiders from sites like Google and Altavista list new blogs much faster than they list new sites. However, it’s not as simple as just creating a blog and letting it sit there. You have to also use tactics like pinging, linking and the use of keywords. I’ll go over each so that you are able to effectively use your blog for a quick site listing. I’ll also briefly go over how to host your own blog on your site.

So how do I host my own blog, anyway?

The easiest way to do this is to install and run a blogging software from another company on your web site’s server. One such software that is popular is WordPress. It’s fairly easy to install and works pretty good on your site. Other blogging software options include:

Apache Roller
Blosxom
Geeklog
Textpattern
LifeType

Whatever one you choose, be sure to follow the instructions provided by the company so that the installation goes smoothly.

Where should I put my blog on my site?

Most people who host their blog to help their site get listed quickly don’t put the blog on the main page of the site, because the site isn’t all about the blog. Instead they put it in its own folder at mysite.com/blog/. But you can really put your blog anywhere on your site, so it’s your call.

What is pinging?

It’s a question that many ask, so don’t feel silly if you don’t know what pinging is. Pinging is essentially a tracking program installed on your blog that will notify the site which it is from whenever your blog is updated. Search engine spiders usually visit newly pinged sites most often, which is why
pinging is such a crucial part of the equation to get your site listed quickly. Sites that are newly “pinged” will be visited by search engine spiders. A visit from the spider equals a listing
on the search engine.

How do I get pinging on my blog?

You’ll have to register with a site that offers weblog pinging. The most popular pinging program around is weblogs.com. Other programs offered include Yahoo’s Blo.gs, BlogRolling, and
Technorati. Once you’ve decided on a pinging service, you’ll have to follow the instructions to install it on your blog. When you’ve done that, your blog will start getting pinged and visited by search engine spiders.

What is linking?

Linking is basically having another blog or site link to your blog. When search engine spiders visit that site and see a link to your site, they’ll visit your site. Linking is effective both for sites with blogs and those without it.

How do I get linking?

You get it by visiting sites/blogs that are relevant to what your site is about. Then you contact the owners of those sites/blogs, asking them to post a link to your site on their site. In return, you will probably have to link to their site on your site. That way, both of you are able to benefit from the
linking. (An example can be found in this web site itself — see “Value Exchange” at the top menu)

Why is the use of keywords important to my blog?

Spiders love to visit sites with a good amount of keywords. People who read your site won’t mind the use of keywords if they are lightly spread throughout the content of your pages. The key to this is to make a list of keywords relevant to your blog posting and then to try to use those keywords throughout your content. It is important to make sure, however, not to overuse keywords. Spiders have been trained to ignore sites with excessive amounts of keywords, so if you use a whole lot of
keywords in the hopes of getting spiders to visit your site, it’s not going to do you any good. Generally speaking, using between 2-6 keywords per 200 word piece of content is a good ratio. It’s pleasing to both readers and search engine spiders.

That’s really all there is to it. Apply the above techniques to your blog and you will net your site a quick search engine listing.

There is no quicker way to get your site listed than to use a blog. So install a blog on your site today and you’ll be listed sooner than you could have imagined!

The following site can assist you further:
FreeAgentPath Website

So you’ve decided to blog, but aren’t sure whether you should host the blog yourself or sign up for a free service like blogger.com. It’s a dilemma that many bloggers face. There are pros and cons to both, which makes the decision difficult for many. Neither is perfect, and neither is for everyone.
Fortunately, you should be able to make the best decision for you if you are armed with adequate knowledge of both. Let me go over services like blogger.com and others, plus software that allows you to host your own blog. I’ll also go over the pros and cons of each. After reading this, you will
know which is best for you.

Who offers free blog hosting?

Many sites offer free blog hosting. Among them are Forumer, Blogger, BlogEasy, Aeonity, BlogThing and Blogates. A quick search for “free blog” on Google reveals many possibilities.

What software can I use to host my own blog?

Like free blog hosting, there are many possibilities for software that makes hosting your own blog easy. Most of them are free to use. These include:

WordPress(the most popular software)
Apache Roller
Blosxom
Geeklog
Textpattern
LifeType

There is also blog software which you can purchase for use on your site. These include:

Community Server
Movable Type
Radio UserLand

One negative about using software and hosting your own blog is that the process can often times be complicated. You have to download the software and install it to your server, which doesn’t always go easily. It’s particularly hard for those who don’t have a lot of experience installing things on servers.

Why should I remotely host my blog at a place like Blogger?

Places like Blogger allow you to host your blog there. It’s a good option for many people.

The Pros

• It’s easy to set up and maintain a blog. You don’t have to go through the trouble of installing software and configuring it to work on your server. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start posting.

• It’s friendly for beginning bloggers. Sites that host blogs offer good tutorials on how to make your blog postings, so that even someone who is completely new to the concept of blogging
can do it easily.

• Most blog hosting sites are completely free to use. There is no need to pay for things like a domain name and hosting.

• Monetizing your blog is easy. Rather than having to manually put HTML/Javascript codes on your blog to manually set up things like AdSense and Pay Per Click advertising, you can select an
option on most blog hosting sites that does much of the work for you.

The Cons

• You don’t have as many options to customize your blog. Remotely hosted blogs are admittedly somewhat limited in terms of what you can actually do on them. You have to stick with what is provided to you in terms of look and features.

• The URL you get is always yourname.BLOGSITE.com. You don’t get to have a custom domain name like YOURNAME.com. This can possibly hurt traffic to your blog.

• Blogs hosted on free blog sites don’t look as professional as self hosted blogs.

Why should I self-host my blog?

The Pros

• You have more options and more flexibility. You are able to tweak the blog to your liking.

• Your URL is your address for your blog. Rather than having go to where your blog is hosted to read it, they can read it right from your site.

• The ability to make your blog look professional. Blogs that are hosted on sites of their own tend to look a lot better than those hosted on free sites.

• More space for your blog. Free blog sites usually place a restriction on how much space you have for things like photos and music. By hosting your own blog, you are able to use as much space as you need.

The Cons

• There are sometimes problems with setting up blog software to run on your site and server. If you aren’t experienced when it comes to working with mySQL, the process will be hard.

• Updates aren’t as easy to post.

• You have to manually set up programs to monetize your blog. However, if you are good with HTML/Javascript, this shouldn’t be too hard.

• You have to pay for your own hosting and domain

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both. Which should you choose? Well, it depends on who you are and what you intend to use your blog for. If you intend to use it for business, then a self-hosted blog is the best idea. If it’s a personal blog, then a free hosted blog will probably be fine for you.

Closely examine all of the pros and cons mentioned above. That way, you’ll be able to make the best decision for you!

Check this site out, it can help you ‘cos it has an optimized Wordpress blog ready for you:
FreeAgentPath Website

Is your blog collecting dust and not getting enough traffic? It’s a common problem for bloggers. Their blogs are good, but no one is coming to visit. They want to know how to increase traffic. Increasing traffic is actually easier than it seems–provided you know how. Lets go over 7 specific methods of increasing traffic. These are guaranteed methods to draw more visitors to your blog.

Tip #1: Sign up for pinging services

It seems pretty obvious, but most bloggers, even those who are more experienced, don’t sign up for pinging services. If you’re new to blogging and don’t know what pinging means, pinging basically means that when your blog is updated, a “ping” is sent out by the service to let pinging sites know that your blog has been updated. People who are visiting sites with pinging services will then see your blog flash across the side of the screen as “newly updated”. Pinging services include Yahoo’s
blo.gs, weblogs.com, Google Blog search, and ZingFast.

Tip #2: Sign up for Technorati

If you go to technorati.com, you’ll see an option on the left side of the screen to “Claim Your Blog”. Doing so allows you to get updated link counts, add your photo or branding to
Technorati, and see your Technorati link. Having your blog claimed on Technorati helps to increase traffic because the millions of people who go to that site will have a chance to see your blog on there.

Tip #3: Sign up for FeedBurner, a RSS service

What FeedBurner basically does for your blog is it helps you to promote your blog’s content, build your audience and measure your audience. In other words, it helps you increase your blog’s traffic.

Tip #4: Bookmark your blogs at places like del.icio.us

You can set up an account and profile at del.icio.us. Then, using that, you can add links to your blog along with excerpts from your blog. Anytime someone visits your profile on del.icio.us, they will see a link to your blog and excerpts.
There are other social bookmarking sites that you can use in much the same way. The bottom line is, using these social bookmarking sites can help you increase traffic.

Tip #5: Post comments at other blogs

No, this doesn’t mean you should go and spam other blogs with comments that are only there to promote a site. It means that you should visit similar blogs to your own, post legitimate comments and then sign your name(along with a link to your blog). This way, people know you aren’t there just to promote your site—you’re there to post a good piece of feedback and also say where you’re from.

Tip #6: Ask owners of other blogs to post a link to yours

Find other blogs that are similar to yours. If they seem to be decently popular (that is, they have a good amount of comments for each post), you can try to contact the owner of the blog to add a link to your blog if they have a links section. To make them really want to do this, you can offer to link back to their blog on your blog. People do this reciprocal blog linking all the time and it does help to increase traffic.

Tip #7: Use keywords in your blog

Like regular web pages, having a good keyword density on a blog is a terrific way of getting search engine spiders to notice your page. (FYI: Search engine spiders are programs from search engines that browse sites and report back their findings to the search engine database, which then lists that site. The more keywords on your site, the more likely it is for a search engine
spider to pay a visit)

If your average blog posting is around 200 words, try to use 2-6 keywords per blog post. 2-6 keywords in a blog posting of 200 words is a keyword density of between 1 and 3 percent, a
respectable number. Remember that you don’t want to use too many keywords, as that will make your blog look bad. Also be sure that the keywords used are relevant to your blog. Before even
making a blog posting, decide what the post will be about and then select a keyword or two to use in your post. Then do it.

It’s a surefire way of getting more traffic to your site!

You’re a blogger and are constantly hearing about pinging. The thing is, you don’t know what it is and what it can do for your blog. Well that’s fine because a lot of bloggers don’t quite understand pinging.

What is pinging?

When a blog is pinged, it essentially tells a web blog tracking system that the blog has been updated. Thus, pinging is the process of telling tracking services that a site has been updated.

So how does pinging work? Well, a ping service scans regularly blogs for updates. Whenever there is a new update for a particular blog, that is reported back to the pinging service’s site. You can almost think of ping services being just like search engine spiders—both scan sites looking for information,
and both report that information back to their specific site. The difference is, a ping service only reports back new blog posts.

Why is pinging useful for my blog?

Pinging, in effect, tells people that there is a new blog posting available. Those who are loyal followers of your blog will see the ping and want to visit your blog. Those who haven’t read your blog before will see the ping and perhaps think “hey, there’s a new blog I haven’t been to before, I think I’ll check it out”. Pinging helps to increase your traffic because it tells people when your blog is updated. Those who visit sites with pinging services will see this information in the form of a scroll on the left or right side, or top of the page. The scroll is usually in XML format and typically includes the title and URL of your blog, as well as the date and time of the update.

OK, so now I know what pinging is. Who offers pinging?

The answer is, there are several pinging services available which you can use to have your blog pinged. Lets go over some of them right now…

Weblogs.com
Weblogs.com is probably the most well-known pinging service. Weblogs.com monitors sites for updates and then pings whenever there is an update to report. Virtually every blog software is
available to use Weblogs.

Yahoo’s Blo.gs
Another popular pinging service. This one is offered by Yahoo and has a built-in integration with movable type and other tools. One cool thing about this service is that it offers the ability to give out updates via Instant Messenging services like AOL and ICQ. It is a direct pinging service, so those who sign up for subscriptions to your blog will be sent an email anytime your blog is updated.

Blogrolling.com
Blogrolling allows its bloggers to manage their blogrolls(updates) through a web-based interface. Recently updated blogs are also highlighted on Blogrolling’s web site. Data is automatically retrieved from other sites like blogger.com and weblogs.com every 5 minutes. Often times your blog is already being pinged by Blogrolling, so you might not have to sign up for it. Search on the site first for your URL before signing it up.

Technorati
Available at http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping, Technorati is another service that pings blogs. It gets its data from a variety of places and is definitely a site you should go to for
blog pinging.

These are just 4 of the many different blog pinging services available. A quick search on Yahoo or Google will reveal many other possible blog pinging services to use for your blog. It is best to sign up for as many as you possibly can to ensure that your blog is well-pinged. A well-pinged blog will definitely help your blog attract more visitors. So sign up for as many as possible and watch your blog traffic increase.

Pinging tells people when your blog is updated. It is an incredibly useful, and easy to sign up for service, so be sure to sign your blog up for pinging!