Blogging has become one of the most popular sources for information and advertising on the Internet.  The word, “blogging” is derived from weblog.  Originally, the blog site was used similarly to a diary and still can be used in this manner.

How can a blog site be created you ask?  There are many ways.  You can find free sites such as Blogspot (owned by Google)and Squidoo. You can also buy your own domain or use your existing domain to create a subdomain or sub directory.

When using another company’s site, they will provide the editing program for you…you supply the content (articles, images (pictures), music.  If developing your own blog site, the most popular editing program to use is WordPress.  In either case, you do not need to know html, although a small amount of knowledge will be helpful.

To explore WordPress, it is free to download but you must have, not only a domain, but a hosting company as well.  Occasionally, you will need to access your cpanel (control panel) through your hosting company. Another tool, which will provide you with excellent service, is a ftp (file transfer protocol) program.  FTP allows you to upload files from your computer to your cpanel.  Through the years, WordPress has become more and more sophisticated to make the whole process much easier than it once was.

Once you have uploaded WordPress, there are many, many plugins which have different uses.  Example:  Akismet sorts out the spam comments your blog site may receive and, after a period of time, will delete them unless you rescue them as legitimate comments.  Another example:
Post Teaser shortens each article, and inserts a “read more” option and provides the time it will take to read with a link to the entire article.  Plugins are also free but there could be some which are not.  For the most part, plugins are free.

Why should you use your owned site to create a blog?  My answer to that is because another site could pull the plug on your blog and you would lose your entire blog (I have had this happen).  Whereas, with your owned site, as long as you pay your hosting fees and do backups (in case of a hacker) your site will remain for however long you desire to have it.

Generally, your blog site should be targeted to a particular subject (niche).  Examples:  Interior design, classical music, affiliate marketing.  I have one blog site that I call a “Soup to Nuts” site which has articles in many different categories (subjects).  Speaking of articles, if you are not a writer, there are plugins and companies which will supply you with automatic articles.  You simply need to approve them.

In conclusion, my mission here was to familiarize anyone interested in learning to blog with the procedure and terms attributed to blogging.  I recommend Expert WordPress.  Hope you have learned something and, if you leave a comment, I will know my mission has been accomplished.

Optimizing your blog post is very simple.  It can be done in 3 simple steps. These 3 simple steps can increase visitors and be the difference in a blog that produces no income for its owner virtually  or one, where the owner can quit their day job and make a full time living.

Follow the advice below to SEO optimize every blog article you post and take advantage of free traffic from search engines.

To start with, you should make certain your post addresses are optimized for the search engines.  With many free blog services like Blogger, this is done automatically and cannot be changed.  If you’re a WordPress user, then you’ll need to set your url structure so that the code produces search engine optimized url’s when you create a blog entry.

The way you do this in WordPress is to click on the “Permalinks” tab, and check the button along side the Custom field.  Next you’ll put a percentage sign followed by the words, Postname.  Immediately after the words postname, now put another percent symbol.  This makes sure your blog will have optimized posts.

The best tip to optimizing your blog is to put your main keyword in the title. Let’s say you’re blogging about how to earn extra cash, then use these keywords in the title of your blog and your blog post.  If your blog is about Dogs, then don’t use something unrelated like your name in the title unless you also have the word, dog in there.  If your name is John and you have a blog named, John’s Dog Blog, then you’ll rank higher than if you name the blog something that does not tell the search engine what your blogs about.

Your next step is to use your keywords in the Post title.  If you’re trying to lure traffic to click on your post, using ebay to earn money, then your post title should have those keywords in it.  Forget about using non relevant titles like, How I Make Money With Auctions.  The search engines won’t know what your post is about and the non relevant title prevents search engine users from finding your blog post.  This is especially important if you’re trying to make money with Adsense.

Implementing these 3 simple tips will allow the Search Engines to know what your post and blog are about.  By making it easy for the search engines to know what your post and blog are about, they’ll rank you higher in their listings.

Now the only thing you’ll need is to build links to your blog and blog post. But alas, there isn’t enough room here to go ito the details of link building. Learn how to optimize your blog and blog post first before taking on link building.

There are so many new-age terms floating around these days. This especially applies to the internet.  Many older individuals, and even some younger people, have trouble keeping up with all the changes and nuances our high-tech world has to offer.  The mere mention of email and cell phones could make the public think that you are mad.  Gadgets and medium rule the world today.  Take voicing your opinion for instance.  While people once did this through radio and TV, they now do it via internet.  So if you’ve ever asked yourself, what is blogging? It’s basically a way to vent your thoughts, emotions and opinions via the web.  You have anything to say?

In actual facts, many took to the internet to blog about their viewpoints. While everyone would have questioned what is blogging five years ago, today, it’s all the rage and in full effect.  Now, think of some reasons you might want to start a blog.  Now, hang on!  We should establish some format first.  Online websites like Blogger.com and WordPress.com let you sign up for free blogging accounts and you can start blogging immediately.  It is really that simple and straightforward.  You can publish your blog very quickly.  So what would you like to write about?  Perhaps you want to start a blog on politics, religion, money making or movies.  The choices are endless and they’re all yours.

Now, if you’re still not clear on what is blogging is or what your motive would be to do it, you should consider the monetary gain.  That’s right, you guessed  it correct!  You can actually earn from blogging on the web.  Essentially, websites such as Blogger.com, which is affiliated with Google, allows you to place relevant ads on your blogs.  This in turn enables you to earn ad revenue whenever a web surfer clicks on one of the ads.  This is a primary reason why many folks make the decision to create blogs in the first place.  You can earn money with your skills.  At this point you no longer have to ask anyone; what is blogging?  Now you know!

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