Blogging for Fun….and Profit

Everyone should by now have their own Blog. It is so easy, in ten minutes you can have your own blog published and the best part….no or low cost and no complicated knowledge needed. The two most popular places to start are http://wordpress.org and www.blogger.com
Blogs are a great way to get your message across on the internet and have it published almost immediately. It is the ideal way to provide information, education and if done well, can create wealth and multiple sources of income for you.
For your blog to be effective you need to ensure that it either solves someone’s problems, removes their pain or increases their pleasure. To me, it is the perfect online selling tool that will drive business, leads and sales. I have found that the best way of having an effective blog is to make it conversational, interesting with valuable content, but also engaging and involving the reader.I started my blog three years ago and now have twenty blogs covering different subjects and all producing me money one way or another (I love that word….) I initially just published my existing articles to my blog, now each month when I produce my newsletter I also include those articles as well as other information that may be of interest. The search engine spiders love blogs as they always have new and interesting content. I try to share a combination of personal stories and high content business articles so that the blog will appeal to a large audience.

I have a lot of links within the blog articles back to sections of my websites and my products. The quick tips section in the blog drives traffic to www.frankfurnessresources.com website where there are videos, tips, resources and a subtle sell to my products (there we go again….)I also use the blog to drive traffic to the section in my main website with free Ebooks and software. This takes them to a form that also signs them up to my newsletter and in turn I get hundreds of new subscribers each week. I submit my Blogs to the many Blog Directories and whenever I add articles I ‘Ping’ the blogs to http://pingomatic.com/I drive traffic to my Blog from a lot of other sources, the most popular right now being Youtube. I have 70 videos on Youtube and at the end of each video I have a message offering free information or Ebooks that drives a ton of traffic to my blogs.I recently learned a great traffic strategy for my Blog. I search for very high ranking blogs in my niche and then add a comment to articles on those blogs with a link back to my website. This is great for the spiders as they now see high ranking sites linking back to my Blog and this pushes me up in the rankings and drives traffic.

A lot of people ask me what the differences are between websites and blogs and the most common are:

No need for a webmaster for updates
Publish directly from your computer
Content changes instantly
No complex uploading
Don’t need knowledge of HTML
Automatic archives
Customer interaction
Instant syndication

By using Blogs and article submission strategies, I now have thousands of links back to my sites, get more bookings, sell more products and build my newsletter subscriber list. The best part is that I’m not a ‘techie’, all I concentrate on are simple sales strategies although I am learning the more advanced strategies that include trackbacks, permalinks and how to get the best from RSS directories.

So remember, as a businessperson or SME blogs have many practical applications in that it will:
Increase targeted traffic to your site

Boost your search engine rankings
Build rapport for increased sales
Increase the lifetime value of clients
Prove your expertise
Compliment your newsletter
Generate press coverage

I would suggest that you also submit you blog to the directories. Some of the more popular directories to submit your blog to for a free one way backlink include.
http://dir.blogflux.com/
http://www.blogcatalog.com/
http://www.bloghub.com/
http://www.britblog.com/
http://www.blogarama.com/
http://www.blogwise.com/
http://www.blogdirs.com/
http://blogs.botw.org/
http://www.blogrankings.com/
http://www.bloggeries.com/
http://www.blogtoplist.com/
http://www.bestblogs.org/
http://www.findingblog.com/
http://blogannounce.info/
http://www.blogtastic.com/
http://www.addurlblog.com/
http://www.blogoozle.com/
http://www.blogsweet.com/
http://www.blogfinds.com/
http://www.spillbean.com/

So don’t wait, whatever your hobby, business or passion, share your stories with the online world. Take a look at my blog at http://blogger.frankfurness.com

Take a look at my video interview with Mike Stewart who is an expert on audio and video and how to maximise your blogs using these tools in Wordpress

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com and please download complimentary Ebooks and software at http://www.frankfurnessresources.comFrank Furness CSP is a London based Sales and Technology speaker.

For more information go to http://www.frankfurness.com or http://www.frankfurnessresources.com or http://frankfurness.blogspot.com/