My list of favorite blog directory

Blogarama - currently have 69,661 blogs and blog resources listed.Add Yours Now!

Blogcatalog - is the premiere social blog directory on the internet. Whether
you're looking to promote your own blog or find blogs on various topics, this
site is for you.

Bloggingfusion - is a premiere blog directory on the internet. They(966 blogs) submitted and growing rapidly. bloggingfusion bloggers get more exposure. Whether you're looking to promote your own blog to increase revenue, backlinks, readership or improve your search engine visibility, this blog directory is for you. Submit your blog today and increase your traffic &
exposure. Blogging Fusion Blog Directory is search engine friendly and updated often.

Bloghop - Their mission is to match blogs with readers! If you're searching for a blog, you can tagsurf to blogs that match your interest. If you're a blogger — add your blog here and make sure to include a good description.

Blogroll
- list your blog according to

Blogrush - The fastest and easiest way to instantly drive a flood of targeted readers to your blog... Absolutely free

Blogtoplist
- Get live statistics over your blog
- Reach thousands of new readers
- Get ranked by a new unique way 100%
- Free to submit your blog(s)

Fuelmyblog - A spam free community exclusive to bloggers, every new blog added is reviewed by a human before being accepted. Once a member, you gain access to new readers, fresh conversation, fun, help, advice and the chance to test products and win prizes.

Technorati - Currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged
social media.

Topblogarea
- It's 100% free to sign up
- Get thousands of new visitors
- Use our free blog tools
- Free Statistics over your blog

Topbloglists - is a top sites directory. Topbloglists have almost three dozen categories to accommodate your choice(s).Ranking of pages is done according to the number of unique visits each blog receives. Anti-cheating measures are in place to prevent dishonesty.
At the beginning of each week, we reset everyone to zero. The averages carry
over from week to week.

Get Yourself Started In Blogging - The Right Way

by: Bruce Tucker

Your Ad Here

As of September 2007, more than 106 million blogs have been tracked which makes one wonder just what blogging is.Blogging is that wonderful world where you can write your personal thoughts about what you think on any subject imaginable, whether good or bad, with or without anonymity, although in reality anonymity really doesn’t exist when it come to the Internet. Your website, your email has an ISP address which is easily traceable to any given computer.
In general, blogs are articles you write and post on the web for the entire world to see. Your blog puts you, your thoughts in the forefront, which lets others see your brilliance or idiocy. You can have your own website dedicated to your thoughts, or you can respond to a particular article that has been written which allows you to voice your opinion about the subject or article, although use tact when responding. Most news media allowing you respond to a written article requires you to provide a valid email address in order for you to make a comment.
Most subscribers to the Internet post there blogs on personal web pages or websites their ISP provides. Other bloggers post their comments on the multitude of websites available for posting their thoughts, usually indexed by subject. To find a blog site, simply type “blog/s” in any search engine and behold you will find thousands of blog sites you can read or post.
Methods for blogging vary which you should consider before doing any posting. Blogging in response to a particular article, as well as posting on dedicated blog sites are permanent blogs, in that they can not be changed once posted. With that in mind, you really need to think about what you want to say before posting your thoughts. It’s somewhat like making a comment, once spoken it can’t be undone.
The other side of posting on an open blog site is the libel issue. At present, blog sites are not libel for what you say, so use caution when blogging.
The other method of blogging is to have your own website or page where you write your own blog. Using this method, you can edit your blog, write about another subject or simply delete the blog entirely. This method in my opinion is perhaps the safest method of blogging, but there is a caveat to this method. When you write something on your computer using a word processor and save the document, even if you delete the article, or document, it still resides on your computer and unless you completely reformat or destroy the hard drive, it remains on you computer forever. If someone wants to prove you wrote the article, with the proper software they can retrieve it.
You may wonder if blogging is without peril. That depends. If you are blogging about your Aunt Tilly’s super fruit cake recipe, you’re safe, but if you’re blogging about a politician, an organization, the government, religious leaders, a company, an individual, you need to be careful about what you have to say, as you just might be libel. Presently, in the US, the courts are undecided about blogging, weighing in on the free speech side of the argument, however; individuals have been imprisoned and/or fined for their blogs.
To be safe when blogging, it’s important to use the correct adjectives, or follow the method the news media use when writing an article. Words like; alleged, subject to, suspected of, and the like may keep you out of trouble. Although, innuendos you make can been seen as an attack, an accusation, by some very sensitive people and they just might decide to take action against you.
Even when using safe words, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to suffer the consequences for your big mouth. Many states have what is known as; “The Right To Work Law,” which simply means employers can fire an employee for any reason, or for no reason. Individuals have been fired from their jobs for posting blogs about their company.
Many blogs are instructional in nature from how to grow a tree, wash a cat to building an explosive device. Here again you need to be careful. Those blogs about explosive devices just might cause a visit from a federal agency. Unfortunate as it is, when it comes to blogging, “Big Brother Is Watching!”


By: James L. Herman
Edited By: Bruce A. Tucker



Links:
http://www.articlecity.com/
How to add a third column to your template
Where to get your RSS feeds
Free articles for your blog
Great free services for your blog

Increase traffic using Tags

Tags is simply a word you use to describe a post. You can think of tags as keywords or labels.You make up tags when you need them and you can use as many as you like. Tags may contain spaces, but must be separated by commas (e.g. blogs, writting, adsense, earn money). The result is a better way to organize your posts and a great way to help increase your traffic.

How to Get Truck Loads of FREE Blog Traffic

If you have been looking for a simple, easy strategy to drive daily, targeted traffic to your blog , read on because... You are just merely minutes away from delivering REAL, laser-targeted, people reading your blog on a daily basis!

Getting people to your blog is the key to successful blog promotion. By participating to a Blog Promotion Program, it will deliver free visitors to your blog, which is a proven and winning method to increase traffic to your blog. Visit Blog directory and learn how to put Your Weblog Traffic on an Auto-Pilot.

Blog directory

10 ways to improve your blogs's ranking

Here are some of the ways on how you can improve your blog ranking for you to have a higher traffic.



1. Tag clouds and tag pages
2. Add a “Related Posts” feature your older posts.
3. Top Ten posts feature to display most popular posts
4. Add “next” and “previous” post buttons
5. Build in bound links
6. Title tags – use SEO Title Tag plugin for WordPress to assign unique title tags to individual posts.
7. Claim your blog at Technorati and use Technorati tags
8. Use “sticky” posts that always appear at the top of the page as a way to add a keywords-rich introduction to category pages. Adhesive plugin works for this.
9. Use the Buzzlogic tool to find out which bloggers are most influential in conversations – refer to them and try to get them to link to you.
10. Get into other bloggers’ blog rolls.

Links
Earning free traffic by joining a forum
Free automatic search engine registration and url submission service
Great free services for your blog!

How to add a third column to your template

Having a third colum template for your blog can be very helpful so that you can add more widget and add more advertisement to it.There's a lot of available template that you can get in the internet but have you ever wonder how they make it? In this post I will show you an example of how you can add a third column to your template and lets have the minima blogger template design as an example since it has a very simple structure and anyone can follow the following steps in adding a third column to your template.

Step 1. Sign in to your blogger acount and go to the edit HTML. Try to be familiar with the codes and look for something that look like this.

#main-wrapper {
width: 410px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */ overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */ overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

Step 2. Now you need to change the #sidebar-wrapper to #right-sidebar-wrapper for you to be able to add another column which we will name as #left-sidebar-wrapper. Your code will now look like this.( The new code is added to just above the #main-wrapper code)

#left-sidebar-wrapper
{width: 220px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word;
overflow: hidden;
}

#main-wrapper {
width: 410px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */ overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

#right-sidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */ overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

Step 3. In order for the 3rd column to fit in your template you need to change the size of it because another 220px is added to your template. Again look for this codes in your HTML and change the width 660 to 860.

#header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
}

#outer-wrapper {
width: 660px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:left;
font: $bodyfont;
}

Step 4. Now that you have finished defining a third column to your template. Your are almost ready you just need to add one last code and again do not forget to change the sidebar to right-sidebar. Try to look for the code below.








(Do not forget to change sidebar to right-sidebar so that it will look like this)

Step 5. Now Add the code below just above the
and save your template.When you view your page element section a new column is now ready for you to add your widgets.

links:
List available page elements you can add to you blog
New and Unique template for your blog

Where to get your RSS feeds

If you are a new blogger and wondering where you can get your RSS feeds well you might want to visit http://www.feedburner.com/ here you can get your RSS feeds for free. Just type in the url of your website/blog to the space provided and click the next button to
proceed in burning your feeds. The process is easy and its free.

Earning free traffic by joining a forum

A lot of blogger say that by joining a forum or discussions that is related to your blog can help increase a traffic to your blog. I would like to try this and Alexa will be my first target since there you can find a lot of topic and maybe I can see one that is related to my blog.

Free automatic search engine registration and url submission service

Why submit your site manually to each search engine, when you can submit your URL from one place to all of them just by filling out one simple form that only asks for your web site URL and email address? If you want to submit your blog/website URL to over 100 search engines. You might want to visit Searchengineoptimising .com. This website submition is free so don't miss it

Great free services for your blog!

http://www.blogfaces.com/ - Add your pic to a mosaic of bloggers' faces, Discover amazing blogs by seeing the face of the blogger behind it, in thecategories you're interested in.

http://www.link2blogs.com/ - free text link exchange that provides blogs the ability to cross-promote each other.

http://www.blogpopunder.com/ - FREE pop under traffic exchange

http://www.blogposition.com/ - Check how your blog ranks in engines

http://www.theblogcompany.com/ - TheBlogCompany.com is a network of blogs providing services, tools and content for bloggers and blog readers.

http://www.blogpolls.com/ - Make money placing polls on your blog! Give us your Google Adsense code, or BlogAds code, or a banner code where you make money. We’ll place it for FREE in the results page, so when your readers click on the ads, or view the ads, you earn money.

http://www.ratethisblog.com/ - Have your blog rated by thousands

http://www.blogbanners.com/ - BlogBanners.com is a free service designed to help blogs trade advertising with each other. The mechanism of advertising is a 728x90 leaderboard banner
that you will place above the fold in your blog. Every time a banner of the network
receives an impression on your blog, we'll show your text ad in 2 other blogs from the
network

http://www.blogcrowd.com/ - Get a crowd to your blog!

http://www.killerstartups.com/ - Killer Startups

New and Unique template for your blog

Do you want to costumize your blog and make it more attractive to your viewers? One way of doing it is by having a nice and cool template for your blog. I have here o some of my favorite sites where you can find new and unique template for your blog.

1. idwebtemplate.com - has a free, easy to use and a lot of category of high quality templates for you.
2. Top 4 Blogger Template Sites - These Blogger template sites will let you use their Blogger templates for free. Blogger templates in different styles, layouts and with different backgrounds and graphics. Choose one of these Blogger templates for your Blogger blog.
3. Free Templates - Free templates resource for you favorite blogs engine, such as WordPress, Blogger, MovableType, TextPattern and many more.
4. FinalSense Provides 2 or 3 Columns, Designed with Standard quality for IE & Firefox and other Browsers; Support all Size and Resolutions, Free, Safe and Easy and Special for Blogger (Blogspot).
5. BloggerBuster - has lots of 3-column templates. If you're like me and doesn't like the narrowness of 2-column templates, this site is a must-see. Amanda who owns the site is a great template designer and is always prompt with questions when you email her through her Contact page, all for free!
6. Gecko and Fly - is also a good site and from my last count, has about 15 free templates to choose from for your blog.
7. Hot free Templates - Download 100% Free Templates Now - The biggest free website template community online. Come here & get free website templates & page layouts, flash templates, business templates & more.
8. topsitescentral.com - Free Templates Archives - Free Templates Archives - download free professional templates. Best, unique & ready to use FREE templates.
9. hostville.com - Absolutely Free Templates - Thousands of free templates in all categories for all your web design & hosting needs, its one of the biggest free website template & webmaster community on the net.
10. Ann-S-Thesia's EyeSites - Templates for weblogs, some with code for Blogger.
11. Blogger Templates - Templates to download and install. Hacks, tips and links geared to Blogger.
12. Blogger-Yolk - Three column, new Blogger template.
13. Free Blogger Skins - Free to download skins, themes and templates for Blogger/ Blogspot.
Images are already hosted. Custom made blog skins also available.
14. Free Blogger Templates - Selection of over 20 free simple blogger templates.
15. Free Blogger Templates - Free templates for Blogspot powered blog. 3
16. Miru Designs - Free templates for Blogger, custom templates available.
17. Noipo Blog Templates - Free to use templates for Blogger, including two templates available from Blogger as well.
18. Simple Blogskins - Nice, clean and simple templates for Blogger users. Free to download.

Free articles for your blog

As you all know the more post you put on your blog means there is also a higher chance of getting traffic and exposure to it. I have here a list of article directory where you can grab your free blog content on any topic you want. Yes it's free all you need is to copy and paste it in your blog but always remember to give credit to the author and the site. For more details check their terms and conditions when posting their free article on your blog.

Articlecity.com
Amazines.com
Article99.com
Alumbo.com
Authorconnection
Articleattack.com
Articlesbase.com
Articleblast.com
Articlebiz.com
Articlecounty.com
Aticlecommunity
Article-emporium
Aticlempire.com
Articlesfactory
Articlefinders
Articlegeek.com
Articlehub.com
Aticleshaven.com
Articlemarketer
Articlematrix
Articlenetworks
Articlenichedirectory
Article-niche.com
Articles-online.biz
Article-outlet.com
Articlepros.com
Articlepoint.com
Articlestop.com
Articlesphere.com

Bloggerwave Pays you to blog

Do you love blogging as well as earning money? Now you can blog and earn money at the same time. Bloggerwave gives you a chance to make money by posting adverstisement on your blog. This opportunity is open for all interested blogger. In bloggerwave you can submit up to 5 blogs all at the same time. Joining bloggerwave is easy just sign up for an acount, submit your blog and post for the open opportunities you can see to your job listing. The more post you submit, the more money you will earn.

bloggerwave

SHAREAPIC - GET PAID TO SHARE A PIC

Waht Is Shareapic? Shareapic is a free service that allows its users to upload and host images. Shareapic has a unique revenue sharing model that compensates users for spreading their images.
How do I acquire money?1: Spread your pics and get $0.22 per 1000 pic views2: Your Google Adsense code to your image and gallery pages.3: Refer new user, earn 10% of their image views forever AND cash prizes!
How much can I earn?Earnings vary each month based off the amount of income Shareapic generates from advertising. Once this number is finalized a percentage of that is distributed throughout Shareapic members depending on how many image views they have accrued.
How do I get paid?Officially Shareapic’s terms state that users are paid NET 30. Generally pay out NET 7 (every 7 business days) as long as your account balance is over $20.00.

Your Ad Here

List available page elements you can add to you blog

As a starting blogger it is important for you to know what are the possible things you can do and add to you blog. Here are the list of page elements you can add to your blog. You can do this by simply going to the template\arrange page element area in your bloggger dashboard.

Slideshow Add a slideshow of your photos to your blog.
Poll Survey your visitors by adding a poll to your blog.
List Add a list of your favorite books, movies, or anything you like.
Link List Add a collection of your favorite sites, blogs, or web pages.
Picture Add a picture from your computer or from somewhere else on the web.
AdSense Earn revenue by displaying relevant ads on your blog.
Text Add some words to your blog - like a welcome message - with our rich text editor. HTML/JavaScript Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog.
Feed Add content from an RSS or Atom feed to your blog.
Labels Show all the labels of posts in your blog.
Newsreel Automatically add current headlines from Google News to your blog.
Video Bar Display clips from YouTube and Google Video for your readers to watch without leaving the page.
Logo Choose from a variety of Blogger logos to add to your page.
Profile Display information about yourself.
Blog Archive Display links to older posts.
Page Header Display your blog's title and description.

Blogging Tips: Your blog must have

1. Make the background lighter.
2. Add a real masthead (maybe use a copyright-free image from Flickr) and a descriptive tagline.
3. Make the sidebar links bigger and bolder.
4. Remove the blogcatalog widget - it shows sort of an embarrassing time lapse.
5. Try going as in-depth as possible with each post. Make it so people have to return again and again to digest the full meal, so to speak.
6. Have you considered writing an e-book? That would be one way to drive direct sales on your blog.
7. Get your own domain - e.g. .com or something.
8. The biggest tip I have for you is to stir the pot a little more. Do a really big blog post on some topic that can get the attention of hundreds of bloggers, and then just email everyone you know asking for their input.

More blogging Tips
easton@knowmoremedia.com

Msmerchantaccount: Your Online Credit Card processing

Nowadays people are looking forward for a credit card type of payment rather than cash. Customers prefer paying their transaction through credit using their Visa, Master Card, American Express, or Discover for they are more convenient to use anywhere and anytime of the day. If you have a business whether it is a small, medium or a large business wouldn’t it be great to attract more costumers because of this credit card type of payment?, because today people are looking forward and is most likely attracted to buying and spending money through credit card and msmerchantaccount is the answer to all of this

If you own a business why not try to visit msmerchantaccount.comand have an account for your online credit card processing. Msmerchant offers a wide variety of credit card processing whether it is classified as a low risk or high risk business. You don’t have to worry about your location or where your business is located msmerchantaccount is always within your reach by a single access to the internet. msmerchantaccount is a United States based company however they can handle credit card process banking from all over the world. Not only that, Msmerchant also offers best solutions for
Internet Websites, Retailing Stores, International Companies, Travel Agencies, Lodging Services, Adult Companies, Dating Services.

Accepting credit card from costumers is really the fastest and easiest methods of payment today. It can also help in increasing and attracting customers from different places because they can already pay you even without leaving their houses. I’m sharing this great opportunity with you so apply for an account today, and see what a difference the ability to accept credit card payments

Discount Click: Your online search engine marketing and promotion services

Do you want your website to be recognized? Want to build more traffic for it? Or are you looking for an online marketing service that is affordable, economical and provides real results in just 2 to 4 weeks? Discount Click is the answer to your problems. Discount Click has a free registration for all and provides services that specialize in increasing your companies website's marketing efforts and search engine traffic like Google, Yahoo and MSN to increase online sales for your business or your interactive agency customers. They do this by search engine marketing, List Management and through Banner Ad service. Discount click is the place where you can find search engine marketing and promotion services for your website. You are free to choose what option you prefer for your website. Discount Click will also provide you a marketing charts and graphs for you to know your website traffic and where your website currently stands in all the major search engines. This a great offer for you, your website and your business so try and visit Discount Click now.

Blogsvertise.com

A site that allows you to earn income, advertise on blogs, put ads for your blog and even promote your website. Blogsvertise is for both advertisers and bloggers that's why the possibilities and earning opportunities are endless.

Blogsvertise For Bloggers. Blogsvertise gives bloggers and online journal writers to earn income from their online blog/journal in an easy to use, simple and effective system. Registration is free and easy which makes Blogsvertise.com really cool. Compare to others, Blogsvertise offers no system requirement. All you need is a blog/online journal and an active paypal account

Blogsvertise For Advertizers. Blogsvertise can greatly enhance and increase your website traffic through a Building Buzz which generates buzz and traffic building efforts by getting your products and services in front of blogger community and their loyal readers and by Search Engine Promotion that helps in optimizing link building efforts and promotes your website in search engines. Each order you place with blogsvertise increase your link popularity. Blogsvertise for advertizers typically translates advertisements into higher and even dramatic improvements in search engine rankings.

What's a Permalink URL?

Every blog article has a unique web address called its Permalink URL. In order to point to a specific blog article, the permanent link URL is needed which, over time, will continue to point directly to that one blog article. Your blogging software includes a link next to each article that points to this web address. It is called
a Permalink URL. For example, the Permalink for an article in your blog "Womens Talking" is http://womenstalking.blogspot.com/2007/10/october-28-2007.html . Note that it is different (and longer) than the Blog URL: http://womenstalking.blogspot.com/

How do you find the permalink for an article? Each blogging software package is a bit different, but there are a few common approaches. At the end of the article, there is a link that is labeled "link" or "permalink". It is sometimes labeled "#". Hold your mouse over the links, and you may see a small popup that explains that that link is the permalink. At the end of the article, there is a message that says "Posted by ken at 12:15 AM."

see image below:

Traffic counter for your blog

Traffic counter helps you know how many visitors came to visit your blog. Through this you can easily know where your visitors are located in the world, which websites they're arriving from and what they're clicking when they leave your site.Traffic counters can easily be added by setting up the HTML code to your blog that the traffic counter site provides you.

Below are the list of traffic counter you can add for your blog

OneStatFree.com -On this web site you will find all the information you need about our free counter and the traffic statistics gathered from each web site they track. It is password protected, has the ability to track unlimited web pages and tells you everything about your visitors and web site. 100% Free!

HitsLog - is a free Web site statistics service. HitsLog provides detailed information about your site's visitors. Their service is easy to implement: all you need to do is sign up and
then copy and paste a small snippet of HTML coding on your pages. As a result, a free hit counter will be created on your page.



FEEDJIT gives you real-time traffic data on your blog or website. No registration required and it's completely free. See where your visitors are located in the world, which websites they're arriving from and what they're clicking when they leave your site.

hitcountersite Lets know how many visitors your site or web page is getting. Provides simple to use and incredibly easy to setup free web hit counters.

Easy Traffic Counter offers you the simplest solution to professional visitor tracking on the web today. With a variety of designs available, you will find the perfect hit counter to suite your needs at Easy Traffic Counter.

Get Your Blog Cached by Google

Increase your blog traffic by submitting it to google. Registering your domain on the Internet is no longer enough. It can't hurt to do it once and here is the place to do it. You can submit it to Google by completing the Add URL Form at www.google.com/addurl.html.

Check to see if your blog is cached by typing this in Google: cache:http://getting-to-blogs.blogspot.com/(insert your blog address for "sitename.com"). If your search did not find any documents your blog is not cached.

PING your Blog!

Another way of increasing traffic to your blog is By pinging it. In this way you will be able to track of weblogs. You would also be able to update different search engines that your blog has updated. Pinging your Blog helps crawl and index your site, publishing your blog contents, thus increasing your blog's popularity. Below are the list of sites where you can ping your blogs for free.

1. http://technorati.com/ Allows you to ping your blog. Provides plugins, applications and widgets to help you get more out of Technorati.

2. http://pingoat.com/ Pingoat is a service that pings or notifies a number of services that keep track of weblogs and publish them. By pinging, you let the services know that your blog has been updated and hence, they crawl and index your site, publishing your blog contents, thus increasing your blog's popularity.

3. http://pingomatic.com/Ping-O-Matic is a service to update different search engines that your blog has updated.We regularly check downstream services to make sure that they're legit and still work. So while it may appear like we have fewer services, they're the most important ones.Make sure to only ping specialized services if they're relevant to your blog, otherwise you'll cause an undue burden on them.

Monetonizing your blog

Listed below are some of the ways you can add to your blog if you are aiming to earn money from it

1. Google Adsense AdSense for content automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers ads (you
can choose both text or image ads) that are relevant to your audience and your site
content-ads so well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them useful.
2. Yahoo Publisher Network Yahoo's answer to Google Adsense
3. Adbrite - Text advertising Adbrite operates a network where publishers (blog owners included) can sell text ad spaces directly to advertisers
4. Text Link Ads "Text Link Ads" specialize in placing static html links on high quality, high traffic web
properties
5. Chitika - Product display ads Chitika says "We make money for you by displaying revenue-earning ads and merchantoffers on your web site"
6. Kontera - InText Advertising The company's flagship product, ContentLink%u2122, finds contextually relevant keywords
on a publisher's web page in real-time and automatically matches them to relevant ads presented as In-Text sponsored keyword links.
7. BlogAds - Text and Image based ads Blogads.com is a network of influential bloggers who collaborate to promote and sell blog
advertising.

Technorati Profile

Google Adsense - Make money through your Blog

Imagine... being paid checks by the largest and most popular search engine, simply for displaying a few ads on your website for FREE? Well, this is exactly what the Google Adsense program is all about! And when you think about it, it's a revolutionary way of earning yourself a useful online side income. But let's back up a bit... In the past, many webmasters displayed ads from various companies, via pop-ups, banners, pop-ins and pop-unders. However, visitors to these sites soon got tired of these advertising methods - I mean, who'd like to go to a website where they'd have to close pop-up windows every other minute? This resulted in a dramatic loss of traffic, and in turn made many webmasters to lose profits. That's when Google announced a novel program – Google Adsense. Instead of having to use banners and pop-ups to advertise companies and gain a commission, website publishers could now earn a decent profit by displaying unobtrusive text ads on the content pages of their website. Since the ads displayed were often directly related to what your visitors are looking for on your site, you had a way to both monetize and subtly enhance your web content. One of the main reasons for its popularity, is the fact that the Google Adsense program is incredibly accurate. By stepping beyond the boundaries of simple keyword matching, it has quickly become one of the most prominent tools to display accurate advertisements. A list of keywords is still used as the basis of triggering ads, but complex algorithms now ensure that non-relevant ads no longer show up on your site. Google Adsense also gives you the option to be selective about the type of ads you wish to display. This helps you direct your visitors towards certain type of products and avoid non-relevant or competitor ads. To make it possible for everyone to integrate Adsense into their
sites, the program offers a wide variety of settings that allow you to alter the ads' size and appearance. Google offers their Adsense program to just about all website owners. After signing up for the program, you'll receive an HTML/ XML code to paste on all of your web pages. Then, Google will dynamically generate ads that are relevant to your web content. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of the Adsense ads on your site, Google credits your account with a percentage of money that was paid by the advertiser for that ad. To sign up for this terrific program, hop over to http://www.google.com/adsense It's super easy to set up - just a few clicks of your mouse and you're ready to go! Once you start displaying targeted Google Adsense ads on your website, you can expect to generate a sizable income depending on the traffic flow to your site and how many visitors actually click on the ads.

Ten Ways to Write Great Blog Posts That Get Attention

Millions of blogs fight for readership online (over 75 million by some counts), with thousands more being created every day. Making yours stand above the rest may seem like a daunting task, but here are ten suggestions for making your blog posts stand out from the crowd.

1. Write each post title so it grabs the reader's attention. It is the first thing someone reads, and it should get your reader's attention right away. Your title should both pique the reader's interest and be informative. Do not write "Business Writing Advice"; instead, say "The
Best-Kept Secret to Reducing Your Business Writing Worries." Longer titles have the advantage of describing in detail what your post is about; 8-12 words are a good range.

2. Keep sentences short and clear. A little goes a long way. Readers are busy people and they will not spend hours detangling complex syntax or sifting through blocks of text. Also, use strong language. Start a new paragraph every few sentences, and limit each post to 250 words, if possible. If you cannot write it in under 250 words, split it into two entries.

3. Break up the text. Use numbered lists, bullet points, and subheadings to make your posts easy to scan. Lots of white space on the page is a good thing-it allows your reader to take mental breaks and let the knowledge soak in. In addition, with the inevitable clutter of banner ads and side text, this technique puts some distance between your writing and all those distractions.

4. Keep current. No one wants to read old news. Your job is to stay up-to-date so your readers do not have to themselves. Read newspapers. Scour the web for references. For example, if you write a blog about business communication, subscribe to Google News Alerts
using keywords related to the field, such as blogs, podcasting, instant messaging, business letters, memos, and business reports, so you will always be well informed. Posting items from last month or last year will lose your reader's interest faster than you can say "Enron."

5. Be bold. Timidity is an easy path to anonymity. Do not be afraid to create and state your opinions. Of course, there are some situations in which objectivity rules-but you have to give people a reason to read this blog by you and not by the person next door.

6. Be accurate. If you make a statement, be prepared to back it up. Know what your sources are and quote them accurately. Misinformation spreads like wildfire online; do not be the spark that sets it off or the wind that fans it.

7. Contribute to the conversation. Links are great-but then what? Do not just post links to the same tired sites, offer your reader something new. Contribute to the conversation. Your goal is to be the site to which everyone else is linking-so you had better have something worth writing about.

8. Stay focused. Once you have defined the theme of your blog, stick to it. A blog about piggy banks has no business posting about the latest innovation in alternative energy. Such a deviance will only confuse your reader and chip away at your virtual authority.

9. Use key words liberally. Keywords are, well, key. Harness your blog's search engine potential by dousing your title and post with effective keywords that will help interested parties find your page in the vast, muddled blogosphere. This is one of the most important elements of getting your blog read-go at it with gusto.

10. Be consistent. Keep a schedule and stick to it. Post frequently-at least several times per week if you want to increase your potential of attracting new readers. Let your blog languish for weeks without updates and your audience will move on to fresher ground. Maintaining an informative blog that people want to read takes hard work and good writing skills. Find what makes your writing unique-and flaunt it for all it is worth.

Adding Photos to your Post

Let me show you the steps on how to add photos and videos to your post. It’s simple and easy. When you are in your posting window screen just select the add image or add video button and a window like the image below will appear.

For Adding Video
Just browse a file in your computer that you want to upload, agree to the upload terms and conditions and click the upload button.

For Adding Photos
When adding photos, you may want to browse files and images from your computer or add photos from the net just by simply typing its URL. Select the layout of your photo the way you like it to appear on your post and click the upload image.

myLot User Profile

Customizing blog layout

One way of attracting people to view and read your blog is by making it look nice and attractive. As a blogger you are free to customize the page elements, font color, HTML codes and templates of your own blog account. You can do this by selecting the template index that you can see on your screen. It’s easy and you can start experimenting by yourself.

Below are some tips to guide you on customizing your Blog Account

1. Page elements
There are usually 4 page elements in your blog that you can manage. You can do this by clicking Edit which you can see on every page elements available. A window will appear asking you what you like to do.
a. Navbar
b. Header
c. Blog Post
d. Side/footer bar

2. Fonts and Colors
In this section you can chose the font style and colors that you wish to see in your blog

3. Edit HTML
If you wish to add or edit some HTML codes in your blog, you can do this by just going to the edit HTML index that you see on your screen.

4. Pick new Template
You can also select a new template for your blog. There are already available templates for you to choose from when you go to the Pick New Template index. Just select the template that you want on your blog.

Creating a new Post

For new Bloggers out there let me share with you some tips and guidelines in creating a new post

1. Log on to your blogger account and go to your Dashboard.

2. Create a name and title for your blog.

3. Now you can start posting by selecting new post shown on your screen

4. You can now start typing your post and you may want to save or publish it.

5. Don't forget to put label or tags to all your post so that viewers may easily find keywords that they are looking for.

Topics for your Blog

After deciding on which website you want to post you blog, its time for you to select a topic that you want to discuss and post. Topic that you select can be anything and everything that is under the sun. There are many options out there. You don’t need to be an expert writer you just need to express yourself, your thoughts and ideas. There you have it! You can now start writing. Your blog serves as your diary. You may keep your writings just for yourself or you may want to share it to others. What’s important is that you enjoy what you are doing.

Getting started

To begin with, the first thing that you should have in mind is the question "Where do you want to start blogging?" There are many options for you in the internet. There are loads of free blogs that you can join and get started setting up your own blog rather easily. If you want, you can set up blogs with various blog programs. You can have more than one. You might have a blog on blogger and one on blogster and maybe more.


The following is a brief list of free blogs :
Blogster.com
Blogger.com
Blogspot.com
Wordpress.com