At first blogging was strictly used as a tool for online diaries. Then blog and ping came along and people began making money with blogs. Then in 2006 tag and ping was introduced and blogging became an even more formidable tool in the hands of internet marketers.
Today many of the most well-known internet marketers have their own blogs which they use to keep customers informed of what's happening. Many marketers use a blog as a way to promote their upcoming product launches and to dialog with their visitors. By leaving comments visitors and customers can interact with the blogger, using the comment box to ask questions, give testimonials, and let their thoughts be heard.
Anyone, whether experienced or internet newbie, can set up a blog, make a post, and have search engines spidering their site within minutes. Visitors can be coming to their blog in less than a day.
Blogging Tools
There are lots of great tools for bloggers to use. Many of these tools are free. Blogging software such as Wordpress combined with a multitude of plugins, tag and ping, RSS, and social bookmarking work together to making blogging a phenomenal way to get your product or information before the public.
There are plugins that put tagging on steroids, such as Ultimate Tag Warrior. There are plugins that help you put video on your blog with a simple line of code, such as Fallen Media Plugin. And at least one plugin, Akismet, that takes care of spam comments.
There are plugins that create a static home page on the blog, similar to a home page on a static web site. If you don't want a home page, perhaps you would like to make a permanent post that stays at the top of the main page. There is a plugin that will do that called Adhesive. There is also a plugin called Adsense Deluxe that simplifies placing Adsense ads on the blog.
Favorite Wordpress plugin downloads can be found at:
Headzoo.com - some of the best plugins for Wordpress
Wp-Plugins.net - has an amazing number of plugins for Wordpress
There are also free themes available for you to use with your blog. A theme is the look of the blog. If you are using Wordpress, check out Themes.Wordpress.net for an unbelievable number of free themes you can download and use for your blog.
The Importance of a Good Ping List
First of all, if your blog is keyword-rich, the search engine spiders will visit your site's quality content, especially if you update and ping your blog regularly, once a week at the very least.
For lists of possible sites to add to your ping list do a search on the term "ping list" or visit these two sites: SeoBlackhat.com/2005/09/05/rss-ping-list/ and InternetFamous.net/2007/list-of-ping-services.html.
Submitting Your Blog and RSS Feeds
Two more ways to get more traffic to your site is to submit your blog and your RSS feed to sites like Technorati and Ice Rocket. A great list of fifty-five such sites can be found at MasterNewMedia.org/rss/top55.
There are many sites where you can submit your blog, such as Technorati and Icerocket. There are also sites like these that include feed aggregators that will syndicate your RSS feeds. Or you can use a service like RSS Submit to submit your RSS feeds automatically.
Conclusion
This is just a quick rundown of the tools available for bloggers to generate traffic to their blogs. Of course, new tools are being created all the time. Last year tag and ping and social bookmarking became popular.
Now we are in a new year with new possibilities. Whatever happens, blogging is continually gaining in popularity as a way to make money online.
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