Q. Host your own blog..? Why would anyone want to do that when there are plenty of well established blogging platforms that will let you set one up and operate it for free?

A: Better SEO, total control, more traffic and more sales – although those reasons won’t apply if you’re not blogging for business!

When I started out blogging I opened a blogger.com account. That worked fine for me at the time because I was new to blogging. I was such a newbie that I didn’t even realise it was possible to host my own blog.

Even if I had realised that, it’s not something I would have given a moment’s thought to. I was too new to working online. I was (still am) totally non-techie and it would have been too daunting a task.

So I happily blogged away on my blogger account until I logged on one day to find that Google had translated all the admin pages into Chinese. I live in Hong Kong so Google, thinking they were being smart, used my IP address as the basis on which to make the decision to translate it.

Not being able to find the help link (because I can’t read Chinese) I logged into my Google account (Adwords, Gmail, etc,) to raise a request for them to translate my blog back to English.

After a week nothing had happened. I hadn’t received a reply, I still couldn’t read my admin screens, and I was seriously frustrated that Google should unilaterally decide to translate my blog, so I kissed the big G goodbye and shifted my blog over to Wordpress.com.

By this time I had learned enough about blogging to have heard that Wordpress was the place to be. So with some anticipation of great things to come, I imported all my blogger posts and set about learning the new admin screens.

One thing I noticed immediately was that my posts were suddenly figuring much more quickly in the natural search results, so it looked as though at least some of what I’d heard was correct.

And I happily blogged away until…

…one day I tried to log on to be met with a notice telling me my blog had been suspended for infringing Wordpress’ terms and conditions.

DAMN..!! Twice inside a month I’d been blind-sided by my blogging platform and the second occasion was even more damaging than the first. (It doesn’t look too professional when your visitors are told that your blog’s been suspended for infringing terms and conditions).

So, finally, I was pushed into the realisation that I had no option but to set up my own blog and host it myself.

So off I clicked to Wordpress.org to see what I could find out. And I was pleasantly surprised.

Firstly – they’ve made the process as easy as possible by setting out extremely clear, easy-to-follow instructions.

There are a few minimum requirements set out, which pretty much every hosting provider meets. You can always check with your provider if you’re not sure. Mine does, so I printed off the instructions and got going.

First step is to set up the database. Easy to do – the instructions are very clear, include screen shots for every step of the way and are written in simple, non-techie language.

I then downloaded and unzipped the blog files, entered my newly created database details into the config file, (just followed the instructions), uploaded the files and accessed the installation screen via my browser (the URL is provided in the instructions). That kicked off the installation script and I was all done.

It was, literally, a 5-minute exercise.

However, the majority of hosting providers now give you an even easier method than that:

One click installation.

I’ve never done a 1-click installation so I can’t confirm whether it really is one click or whether a few more are involved – but it’s definitely very easy and it doesn’t involve any downloading, unzipping and uploading of files.

So what are some of the benefits of hosting your own blog?

You have total control. You can write what you like, you can drive traffic to affiliate programs, no one is going to translate it into Chinese, and no one is going to lose your database.

You can customise it as much as you like. Customisation is done through plug-ins, and there are plug-ins for just about anything you can think of. You decide what you want to do with your blog, then you can either go to the Wordpress plug-in directory or do a Google search for a plug-in for the function you want.

Download the plug-in, unzip it, upload it and activate it through the blog admin screens. It’s that simple. Really.

But of all the sexy things you can do with your self-hosted blog, probably the biggest benefit of all comes from the SEO elements.

This really turns your blog into an incredibly effective way of figuring strongly in the natural search results.

Optimising your blog for the search engines is simply a question of installing and activating the appropriate SEO related plug-ins. And you can find probably the best list of these in Jack Humphrey’s Authority Blackbook.

If you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up your own, self-hosted blog then you should absolutely download this book and follow the guidelines in there for optimising it properly for the search engines.

Firstly, it’s free and secondly, if you don’t set up your blog properly you’re wasting an enormous portion of its SEO potential.

It would be like buying a Ferrari but never taking it out of the city centre.

I’m now using my blog as my primary means of drawing in traffic. I haven’t spend a dime on promoting it – and I don’t have any intention of doing so going forwards.

And yet my blog is now attracting a little over 50% of the total traffic I’m getting on a weekly basis – that’s traffic to my blog plus traffic to all my other sites – and that’s almost totally due to the SEO effectiveness of my plugin-rich, self-hosted blog.

Within the next year I’m aiming for that to be well over 80%.

While forums have their benefits, they also have the potential of creating huge damage to your business. One wrong thread could send a lot of bad press to your site as well as to your email account.

Forums can be a great place to learn new ideas and bounce ideas off other people. But, they require a lot of time.

More often than not, it’’s far better to spend that time concentrating on marketing your business rather than trolling the forums.

The following five points underscore why spending time in forums can be hazardous for your site’’s health.

1) It’’s not a matter of if but when you”ll get flamed

The problem with forums is that you never know when things are going to get out of hand. Without any reason or warning, you can become a flame target.

I can guarantee that at least one person will not agree with you. This isn”t so bad as long as the dialog takes place within the forum.

But, these online arguments can get out of hand and spill over into blogs, other forums, and through email.

2) Link bandwagons, and useless comments

One of the low points of any forum is that 95% of the posts tend to be completely useless. Many posters are only participating in the hope of getting some mileage from a forum. For people who own a similar business, posting on a forum is the perfect way to gain some exposure and get one way links to boot. Many times, they don”t add any value to the forum.

Then there’’s the typical flood of “I agree” comments. These “valueless” comments can suck and excessive amount of your time.

3) Everyone’’s an expert

There’’s an old saying, “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” I believe this applies to forums as well.

The problem isn”t for lack of experts. The problem is trying to decipher the real experts from the flack.
Unfortunately, it’’s almost impossible to differentiate good advice from bad.

This is somewhat like the blind leading the blind. Misleading advice abounds. It takes time to acknowledge the good experts from the “wannabe” experts. Time better spent elsewhere.

4) Old and stale information

People post comments and information based on what they”ve read or heard about. Unlike a typical publication, with its overabundance of editors, assistant editors, and fact checkers, forums are open source. You have to do your own fact checking.

Another problem is information that’’s just plain old. What may have been true a few years ago may not apply today. For instance, web rings were very popular in the late 1990s. Now, they”re simply known as link farms.

But, there’’s plenty of information, old information, that shows up in search results concerning web rings; much of it in forums.

5) Writing truthful, thoughtful comments is a fad

While some forum discussions have their golden moments, many threads are one sided or between two or three parties. I liken it to two groups of people, each standing on opposite walls in a gym screaming at each other. Unfortunately, many times the good comments get stuffed underneath the bad, disrespectful, disparaging comments.

While forums certainly have their place, they shouldn”t be an all too often hangout. Most webmasters would find they can achieve their site goals faster and more efficiently if they focused on their sites rather than the forums.

The Social Media News Release is a template available for the sole purpose of incorporating social media and multimedia into press releases. And while it may sound like an absolutely ingenious idea, it probably is not the best use of time and money for your business. Here are 6 reasons why using a SMNR may be one of the biggest mistakes you are making.

1. People Do not Read Them. Let s face it, this is not the best way to get your information out to the general public. The number of people who actually view releases on news release websites is quite small. There are better ways to reach your potential customers that are not nearly as expensive or time-consuming.

2. They are Expensive. The optimal use of an SMNR is to send a Social Media News Release with Multimedia, and It is expensive. Even a limited distribution will cost you hundreds of dollars at minimum. Compare this to the cost of writing a blog, which will also allow you to include images and video. The blog is far cheaper and gives you a much higher return on your investment.

3. There is No Critical Mass. One of the most important aspects of marketing with social media is that you can gather a huge number of like-minded or like-interested people in the same place. If you use an SMNR to send your information out to 500 websites, you may only get one or two comments on each website. If that is the case then your interested parties are not talking to each other, which defeats the purpose of social media marketing. Not to mention the time and tedium involved in responding to comments on each of the 500 websites to which your release was sent. Consider instead how you might get those 500 commenters to have a conversation with each other.

4. They Do not Help Your SEO. The whole point of news releases in general is to get inbound links to your site. And while SMNRs contain links, those links are not optimized and generally link to resources other than your website. Use the online Press Release Grader to see how your SMNR release stands up. You will most likely find that you have too many links, and that diminishes the effectiveness of your release greatly.

5. They Do not Help You Reach Your Goals. The whole point of marketing your business is to get people to come to your website and get them to buy your products. So why would you spend money to put your information on another website? We have already noted that SMNRs generally do not result in optimal links to your site, so there is really no sense in using them for that purpose.

6. They Do not Allow You to Use Your Own Mutlimedia Accounts. Did you know that if you want to include a video in your SMNR then you have to upload that video to the news release service s YouTube account? That is right! Never mind that you have already uploaded the video to your own account; now you have to upload it to theirs as well. This means that your video is sitting in an account with thousands of other videos that are not at all related to your product or service. So if a potential customer actually finds your videos and wants to see more from your business, he has to search a lot harder than if all of your videos were lumped together in your account. Another problem is similar to the one we mentioned in #3. The comments left on the new release service s account are separate from the ones left on your account, so your commenters do not have the opportunity to interact with one another. And you have to visit your video in both places to respond to all of the comments.

You are much better off simply creating your own release, without images or video, and sending it over the wire, specially if you do not have the know-how to optimize them. Save the really cool release for your own website where you have control over what happens to it. You will save time and money, and the results will be greatly beneficial.

A great internet marketing strategy is a form of anticipating the future. People know that there is nothing they can do to change what happens in their environment. However, they can change the way they react to it. A good internet marketing strategy anticipates the events in the market and helps a company or people decide how to act in case of such events.

What should a great internet marketing strategy incorporate?

1) Strength – A great internet marketing strategy should incorporate your strengths. It should learn how to make best use of those strengths. A great internet marketing strategy should make use of your full potential as an entrepreneur in order to succeed. It should enable you to react to different factors in such a way that would bring out the best in you. For example, do you have great advertising skills? Then a good internet marketing strategy would make use of those skills to sell whatever product or service you are offering. Strengths could be anything from skills to the ability to actually plan ahead.

2) Weaknesses – Of course, in order for an internet marketing strategy to work, it needs to consider your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Not to do so, would be overestimating you and would probably be a prelude to disaster. The internet can be a great place to remain anonymous and pretend to be invincible but if you are faced with a decision regarding business, those weaknesses will surface. For more details go to www.paylock-generator.com .You need to incorporate those weaknesses in an internet marketing strategy so you can make sure that those weaknesses do not hinder you on your road to success.

3) Opportunities – The main purpose of an internet marketing strategy is to take all of the uncontrollable factors and try to flow with them using the controllable ones. Hence, it is only necessary that a good internet marketing strategy should take various opportunities into account. A good internet marketing strategy would use data such as internet searches and news trends in order to try and anticipate market behavior on the internet. A great internet marketing strategy would help a company seek out opportunities for success. This could take the form of a new development in technology, a new fad or craze by the market or any other event that could lead your business to success.

4) Threats – A good internet marketing strategy should also take into account the various threats that a web-based business may encounter. This could be competition, certain events, or other uncontrollable factors that could cause the failure of an internet business. As we all learned from the collapse of the dot com businesses, the internet can be very fragile. Because of this, a good internet marketing strategy is required to make sure that all gaps are covered. For more details go to www.freeearningtips.com .A great internet marketing strategy is important because it allows people to maximize their strengths, minimize their weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities and keep threats in check. That is the secret to success.

You can find just about anything and everything under the sun in the many blog pages and blog after blog. Online advertising tapped into the tremendous potential, as blogging became more and more popular, as did the every growing audience. The outline below describes 5 reasons why doing business online by blogging, is the best Internet marketing tool today.

Blogging arrived on the Internet marketing scene in the late 90s. It originated as a way to Blogging and Internet Marketing comment on an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice their opinions. It opened the door for real-time, 2-way conversations, even highly charged debates, among bloggers and blog visitors. Blogging has evolved into pages and pages, blog after blog of personal opinions on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it became more and more popular, online advertising tapped into the tremendous potential and ever growing audience. Doing business online today by blogging, is a smart choice for the following 5 reasons.

1. Blogging is easy.

The simplest way to get your information, your products, and your services on the Internet is through blogging. No special skills are required… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. Think of a blog as a virtual tablet of paper and you simply write your ideas, experiences, new products, and service descriptions down and if well written, the truth behind your articles will entice your readers, or blog visitors, to want to know more about you and what you have to offer. So basically, if you have a computer and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic.

In this day and age where advertising saturates our lives, we question the credibility of most advertising claims. However, in the , your blog content will represent a Blogging and Internet Marketingmore personal aspect of who you are and what you have to offer, establishing your credibility up-front. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. Consumers definitely want to buy a tried and tested product. Your potential customers will “get to know you” first, then naturally want to buy from you once you earn their trust.

3. Blogging is free.

There are many reliable and respectable companies offering services which include hosting and blog (CMS). With a free blogging service you can create a professional and profitable blog at no cost. Any opportunity for free Internet marketing tools is definitely a bonus especially for a start-up business. Needless to say, there are also and they too have their advantages. These services may warrant your considerations either once you get your free blog generating revenue, or if you know up-front your blog will require advanced functionality.

4. Blogging builds credibility.

Your blog readers want credible information, answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. Blogging about your experiences and skills in a particular industry, regularly, will ensure your readers they can depend on you to give them what they want. As such, you become an expert that they routinely turn to; the benefit is that more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blog. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market share.

Unless you are already famous, chances are, only your Mom and close friends are reading your blog. Mom has a lot of friends, and your friends have friends, and they let them know how interesting your blog site is, but you can’t depend on this circle of blog visitors to sustain your profit base for long. You should be using the following to build your market:

-E-mail – Today, is rapidly surpassing the popularity and effectiveness of email to quickly and effectively reach your target market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading email is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog. Long gone are the days where we email pages and pages of information. You can now, simply shoot a very short email with a link to your blog where they can find the information in its’ entirety. Also be sure to include a signature in every email you send, to anyone, with a link to your blog.

Blogging and Internet Marketing-Subscriptions – An easy way to build your blogging audience, which in turn increases your market share, is to offer readers a . As a subscriber, they can receive email notifications when you update your blog, or when you have “special” offerings for subscribers only. It is very important though, to be responsible with your subscribers email addresses. The last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-Understand your readers – It’s important to be knowledgeable and constantly monitor your readers needs and wants. A simple survey, every few months will aid you in keeping your finger on the pulse of what your readers will benefit from the most. Additionally, you’ll be able to gather profile information and advertising preferences. By asking your readers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared, it’s like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview. Your readers will also appreciate the fact that you care, and you are willing to listen to them, especially when you implement things on your blog specific to their feedback.

-Join a blog network Be active and productively participate in a that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. The links back from these relative blogs will improve your search engine optimization and at the same time, help build even stronger credibility for you with your blogging audience.

-Use RSS Feeds – RSS feeds are the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site and offer your readers the ability to zero in on the exact information that is of most interest to them.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Put your blog readers needs first, build a strong, credible base and become the authority in your niche and the profits will naturally follow.