Your Blog - Your Profits

Blogging was once a fad, but not any longer. What was once the dominion of glassy eyed, late night geeks and teenagers is now pretty mainstream.

If you seriously want to earn money online, you need to be blogging. Blog is the abbreviated version of "web log". They were originally used as a type of online diary for people who wanted to record their thoughts for posterity sake, and share information with friends and the world in general.

If your promoting an online business, blogging is the way to go. If you want to develop true content filled websites that will help increase your visibility and provide real value for your readers.

The other major reason blogs have become popular with businesses of all kinds, is that they are free to implement. Google's "Blogger" site is free for anyone with a Google account. They provide what amounts to unlimited storage space for all your thoughts, as well as a place to advertise without any cost.

Savvy internet marketers earn money online by getting as many hits on their sites as possible. Blogger blogs are indexed in search engines very quickly compared to standard page sites. The rapid indexing allows you to show up in search engine results pages (serps) far quicker than the standard method of search engine submission.

Sometimes blogs are included in the serps within just a few days. Occasionally, within a few hours. The sooner you can get your blog listed, the faster you can begin to make money online.

Search engines want text. Its OK to include graphics, the search engines need text, and text is something that you can give them with a blog.

Increasing your visibility in the serps, brings more visitors to your site. Some people have blogs without websites. Others use their blogs to compliment their websites. Blogs can promote affiliate programs or Adsense or any other income stream.

The really savvy business owner uses the blog for keyword marketing, and to drive traffic to sales pages, or squeeze pages to collect email addresses. The words in the blog give your overall site higher visability.

One account I know uses his blog to keep his clients up to date on new money strategies and tax planning. Their regular readership gives him the opportunity to offer them other services like credit repair and book keeping services.

Blogs allow you to post information that you would want to keep track of anyway, in a format that is accessible to others. The more visible your site is, the more visitors you will have. The more information you offer, the more visible you become. Its like automatic traffic generation.

Keyword rich articles can be included in your blog which will continue to increase your rankings. Adding useful links, favorite websites, products and other items can make your blog profitable. Use your blog for link building, ask the owners of other sites that you have linked to, to provide links back to your site.

There really isn't any limitation on what you can do in a blog as opposed to what you can do on a standard page website. Your blog can include information collection forms, revues of products that you would like to recommend (or discourage).

You have the choice to accept comments on your blog. Comments need to be moderated because a great many will be spam, but they also provide a unique opportunity to allow others to help grow your blog. Comments are a feature that makes your blog interactive, keeping your readers involved.

If you have your own web host, a blogging platform like Wordpress can be installed in a few minutes. A simple process for the new business owner. Get started fast, and its really easy to use - and best of all, its free.

As we said earlier, Google's Blogger platform is completely free to anyone with a Google account. It can be hosted either on Googles servers, or on your own hosting account. If you are new the idea of earning money online, and want to try your hand at blogging, this is a great way to start.