Short for “web log,” a blog is a specialized site that allows one or more people to share a running log of events and personal insights with online audiences. Basically, a blog is an online journal.

There are millions of blogs currently out there. In fact, there is probably not one topic out there that does not have its own blog. With topics ranging from food to fantasy, home improvement to hot news topics, college sports to celebrities, or baseball to beauty products, blogs are everywhere. Blogs that are particular to political or current-events themes have especially grown in popularity. These blogs, serving as news outlets, have become “soap boxes” for instant mass-audience commentary.

After all, what is media without criticism or commentary? Who does not want to talk about what they see, hear, or read about in the news? The news is a part of our everyday lives – what we see, hear, or read about largely affects us – worldwide, nationwide, and even community wide. With all of the news stories thrown out there, you can hardly expect people to keep quiet about it.

Hence, this is the number one reason for the ever-growing popularity of media blogs as news and commentary outlets.

There are all types of media blogs as well, with each focusing on their own specific corner of what is referred to as the “media universe.” According to a recent Synovate/Marketing Daily survey, loyalty to specific blogs, such as media ones, is fairly strong with 46% of blog readers saying that they visit the same blogs on a regular basis. Approximately 54% of the blog readers surf for new and different ones.

Not surprisingly, those who are aware of and read blogs often are of younger ages. Around 90% of those aged 25 to 34 know what a blog is, while 65% of those aged 65 and over do. Additionally, 78% of those aged 18 to 24 who are aware of blogs say they have visited one, while only 45% of older Americans have.

When asked in the survey what type of information they receive from blogs, the majority (65%) responded that they get opinions; while 39% get their news, and 38% get entertainment. As of right now, media blogs are not necessarily seen as legitimate information news sources, despite the fact that some bloggers are experts in their area. (Think CNN’s Anderson Cooper.) However, this is well on its way to changing. More and more, medial blogs’ prominence and influence continue to rise, and thus so will their reputations as justifiable news sources.

As media blog usage continues to grow, so does their attractiveness as impending marketing tools. Nearly one-third of consumers reported clicking on an ad while reading a blog.

In addition to blogs, the expansive growth of social networking sites allows millions of web users to provide their own unique feedback and to interact socially with others. Like blogs, social networking sites include the ability to post written material to the web, but revolve more around the ability of one to build a web presence, and to create visible links with others in the same network. Social networking sites also allow users to place music, photo, and video content directly on the site.

About Author

In support of the fact that the public should be allowed to talk back to the major media outlets of today, as well as major media personalities, AmericaTalksBack.com is the Internet’s leading social networking website for providing the public with the chance to be heard. Visit AmericaTalksBack.com today for news discussion.

Source: ArticleTrader.com

1. Legibility

Use standard web fonts and normal font sizes. The font color should be dark enough that the reader does not need to strain to read the text, and not so large that it screams at the reader. Bold text should only be used for emphasis and headings.

2. Graphics

Optimize website graphics so they are not slow to load. Avoid using animated graphics that will distract or annoy website visitors. Graphics should be clean and not pixelated.

3. Links

Links should be easily distinguished from other text on the website. And all links should be tested to ensure they function properly.

4. URLs

When selecting a domain name, choose carefully! A number of factors should be considered, not the least of which is how the domain will "read".

Examples:

www.expertsexchange.com could be a valid website for "Experts Exchange", but the domain name itself could also be read as "Expert Sex Change"

www.penisland.com could be a valid website for "Pen Island", but the domain name itself could also be read as "Penis Land"

5. Features

Benefits sell; Features do not. Drop any "technical" lingo, and simply tell users how they will benefit from using your product or service! I can not say it any more plain than that. You should use web copy that explains how your product or service helps, and in very simple terms.

6. Copy

Do not over optimize web copy. Copy should be written for people and website visitors, and not for search engines. Keywords and keyword phrases should be used naturally in your web copy, and it goes without saying that the web copy should make sense.

7. Novelty Items

Background graphics, and animations such as animated mailboxes with a red flag that pops up, are a thing of the past. Times have changed, and the Internet fads of the 1990s are no longer in. Just because you may like to reminisce about yesteryear does not mean that your website visitors will — they're far more interested in the actual reason your site exists or the products it supports.

8. Browser Compatibility

Test your website with all of the popular web browsers. Be sure that your website displays properly, regardless of which browser your visitor might be using. If not, you could be losing potential customers without even knowing it.

9. Global

The Internet is global; do not minimize your audience by thinking locally. Use country and area codes on telephone number listings, provide currency indicators when listing pricing, and offer ecommerce options that appeal to a wider audience.

10. Retain Control

Never give up control over the content served on your websites. Lots of webmasters will simply link to images or content served from other websites, in an attempt to save on bandwidth and content development costs. But serving content from someone else's system gives them control over your website. This can be a big mistake! For example, what if you are pulling a graphic from another website, and they suddenly decide to change that image to something inappropriate? By serving the contents of others, you are relinquishing control over an important aspect of your business.

Keep in mind that style isn't everything. Do not sacrifice SEO for style, and do not sacrifice style for SEO. There is no reason they cannot coexist. A web designer not familiar with SEO should not be doing web design. Fancy graphics and SEO can live in harmony. Avoid the above mistakes and you will be well on your way to a professional successful online presence.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

It's estimated that around 90 percent of computer systems are infected with some form of spyware, ad-ware or virus. With odds like that, it's very likely that your computer either now has, or will soon manifest signs of a system take-over.

What is Spyware and What Does it Do?

Spyware is generally defined as software that secretly takes advantage of vulnerabilities in a user's computer system to the benefit of an unseen third party. The name spyware comes from the fact that the software often records information about your computer and transmits that information covertly to a remote server or intruder. Spyware can make your laptop or PC slow down, crash, get infected with viruses and worms and even cause hard drive erasure. This is on top of collecting sensitive data like your passwords, logins and banking or credit card details.

Spyware often comes bundled together with Ad-ware and browser hijackers. Ad-ware displays advertisements and hijackers secretly change your browser settings. An example of Ad-ware is a pop-up generator, which opens advertisements in pop-up browser windows, even when you're not searching the Web. Having recently had a severe encounter with Ad-ware on my own laptop, I can personally atest to the disruption, inconvenience and loss of sanity they can cause.

My system suddenly seemed possessed and would pop up cryptic error messages every 10 minutes or so. These messages were not true errors, but they were meant to give me the impression they were. An icon would later appear in my system tray which when clicked, started Internet explorer and opened to an anti-spyware site that offered to fix the problem with their own custom spyware removal software for around $30. I won't tell you the name of the site because I don't want anyone else to possibly get an infection but this company was obviously responsible for the problem in the first place. Of course, I didn't fall for this conspicuous sales ploy and if the same thing ever happens to you, DON'T buy anything from them. These slime-balls should never be allowed to profit from their "hold your system hostage" style tactics. Not only that, but they may be setting you up for another round of infections.

These pop-ups were difficult to locate and remove and what made things even more scary was that I also found malicious Trojans and Keyloggers on my system.

Anyway, I eventually removed my infestation but not until after several days of trying different Spyware/Ad-ware removal programs.

However, for now, let's focus on how you can spot the sure signs that your system may be the victim of an unwanted spyware infestation.

7 Signs of Spyware Infestation

1. You're observing inexplicable slowdowns and crashes, especially when searching the Internet or running a security or anti-virus program
2. Your Internet web browser opens to an unknown homepage, returns unanticipated search results, or directs you to an unsolicited website
3. You find that your mouse, keyboard, monitor, or CD/DVD drive is unresponsive or acting unpredictably
4. Pop-up or pop-under browser windows are opening when you are not surfing the Web, or are opening so often as to be distracting
5. Your security or anti-virus programs are not functioning, and/or you cannot visit security-related web sites (eg. www.symantec.com)
6. A program or application that you've tried to uninstall reappears when you reboot your computer
7. Your PC seems to "have a mind of its own" and is difficult or impossible to control

Do you have some or all of these signs? If you do, you definitely have a spyware/malware situation on your hands and need to take action to identify and remove them before they do damage to your system.

For a complete rundown on removing spyware, ad-ware and other nasty threats, visit http://pdatoday.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-remove-spyware-and-adware.html

When it comes to our computers, speed is of the utmost importance. After all, no one wants a sluggish PC that takes 10-15 minutes to start up and then an additional 5-10 minutes to load selected applications. Admittedly, these small setbacks aren't much, but they do add up after awhile, resulting in quite a bit of wasted time. That fact leads us to this very important question — what are the causes of a sluggish PC?

There are many reasons why a computer may become slow & virtually unresponsive. Some of those reasons can be easily found and fixed, while others will remain hidden and virtually impossible to find and/or fix. Your job is to start with the easiest and most common reasons of PC slowness and then work your way up to the more uncommon causes. Below are just a few of the common causes of a sluggish PC; Read through them and see if they might be affecting you.

Faulty Windows Registry: The registry is basically the governing body of your computer. It knows about everything that goes on and it takes record of anything & everything that happens. The only problem, though, is that the registry is not very picky about what it records, or what it lets in for that matter. Because of this fact, the registry is known to accumulate numerous errors, as well as become victim to a wide array of virus and spyware attacks. These errors & "attacks" can cause severe performance issues for a computer, which tends to get worse when nothing is done.

Too Many Processes: The more processes you have running, the slower the PC responds to commands. This includes both on-screen windows and background applications. Many people think that they have only a few processes running on their computer when, in fact, they actually have dozens — this typically leads to sluggish PC behavior.

Temporary Internet Files: When left unchecked, the temporary internet folder can wreck havoc on a computer system's resources. This folder is full of files that are not needed for the long term and may be disposed of at the earliest convenience; pictures, videos, audio files, etc. The term "temporary" implies that the files will only be needed for a short time and then deleted. Unfortunately though, this process is not automatic — the user must find this file and delete the contents manually.

Viruses: If a PC becomes slow both suddenly and unexpectedly, a virus is the likely culprit. These malicious programs attack from all angles in order to slow up and potentially damage your PC. They do all that they can to initiate harmful processes that will have adverse effects on your computer's behavior as well as it's security. The best way to get rid of these troublesome annoyances is to fend them off with reliable anti-virus software.

There you have it — a few simple reasons why you might have a sluggish PC. It’s now up to you to do something about it!

About the Author: PCTuneUpTools.com has done the research so you don't have to! Our experts have created an online resource with PC Speed Up Tips so you no longer have to ask yourself, "How can I speed up computer applications?" For more information, check out www.PCTuneUpTools.com

If you don't work with graphics on a regular basis, you may not know which image format to use for your web projects. It can be a bit confusing. If you're a beginner, take heart, I've seen even experienced webmasters use the wrong formats.

To help you get a better understanding of what to select and when, lets look at some common image formats available.

The BMP Format

The BMP format is Windows' default format which is often referred to as a (bitmap).

For many reasons, I've always felt that Windows' is it's own worst enemy. This couldn't be more true when it comes to it's default image format. BMP images are very large in file size. There's not much you can do to remedy that. What you see, is what you get.

Consequently, this format is not a good candidate for web use. The browser simply can't load a BMP file in an acceptable amount of time. If your favorite photo is in BMP format and you want to add it to your website, use one of the many graphics programs available to convert it to a JPG format first.

The JPG Format

The JPG format was designed and named by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Technically speaking, it's not an image format. It's an image-compression standard.

It is the most common format for use with photographs. The good and the bad with the JPG format is it's "lossy compression" feature.

In simple terms, "lossy compression" is a method of reducing image file size by throwing away unneeded data, causing a slight loss of image quality. Most image editing programs, like Photoshop allow you to choose how much compression you want.

Another term for this compression process is "optimization." When I deliver optimized JPG images to my clients, I generally compress them to about 60%. I've found this to be the magic number that reduces the file to a reasonable size yet doesn't compromise the quality of the image.

Optimizing further leaves blotches and speckled blocks of color. The colors look washed-out and a lot of fine detail is lost.

One of the biggest advantages I find in using the JPG format is that I can include enhancements like reflections and drop shadows which provide depth to an image when making 3d graphics. Almost all other formats look horrible with these enhancements.

I say almost because their is one other format that displays these enhancements very well, but we'll cover that later.

Another thing to note here is that saving and RE-saving a jpg file will cause loss of quality as well. Every time you RE-save it you loose a bit more.

The GIF Format

The GIF format was the first image format used on the web, invented by Compuserve in 1987.

The worst part about using a GIF format is it's restrictive nature. This format will only display a maximum of 256 colors. It's great for clipart, diagrams and charts. Basically graphics that only have a small number of colors in them. But it does absolutely horrible things to photographs.

It's also one of the few formats that you can use to make a transparent background and the only format I'm aware of used to make animations.

The PNG Format

The PNG format is the new kid on the block. It's monogram stands for Portable Network Graphics. Somebody got tired of putting up with the outdated GIF file and designed the PNG as a replacement for it. What a blessing that was!

There are two levels of quality to the PNG compression. PNG- 8 is pretty much like a GIF. It uses a smaller number of colors and the quality is much the same.

The PNG-24, however, has what is known as "alpha transparency." Unlike it's GIF counterpart and the PNG-8, it sports the ability to blend in perfectly as a transparent image, even when enhancements like reflections and drop shadows are added.

The PNG-24 allows the use of millions of colors verses the restrictive GIF format with only 256. This makes the PNG format a terrific alternative to a GIF for making photographs and other multi-colored images with a transparent background. It's like having a GIF and JPG all rolled up in one.

Granted, the file sizes are larger than a JPG, but with todays connection speeds and the ability to slice images into pieces, file sizes are less of a problem than they use to be just a few years ago.

Unlike the JPG format that loses quality each time it's saved, the PNG compression is lossLESS. This means, you can save it once or a hundred times and it won't lose it's quality.

As of this writing, the only downside to using a PNG-8 or PNG-24 format is it's inability to render properly, if at all, in the IE5.5+ browser.

The good news is, there is a work around for this which solves the problem until Microsoft addresses this issue. Thanks to Angus Turnbull for making this available. Search for his name in Google to find his website.

To sum it all up, select the GIF or PNG-8 format for transparency, the GIF format for animations and the JPG or the PNG-24 for images that require top quality rendering.
 

Copyright © 2008, Heather Colman.

About the Author: Graphic Designer Heather Colman helps virtual assistants, coaches, and other professionals online bring visual impact and depth to their products with custom 3d images and website graphics. Visit her site at: CustomDesignGraphics.com

Errors - Page Not Found

How many visitors to your site experience an incorrect or invalid URL? Perhaps you have links on your website to a page that no longer exists. Reviewing the number of "page not found" listings in your web logs will help discern if you have any pages that are not accessible to your visitors. If that is the case, you can then either replace the missing page, or implement a system to automatically redirect the visitor to an appropriate alternate page.

Top Referrers

Where is your traffic coming from? Reviewing the sources of web traffic allows you to assess what advertising campaigns have resulted in increased web traffic.

Top Exit Pages

Where are you losing your traffic? Are there specific pages on the website that bleed traffic? This means that, for whatever reason, website visitors choose to leave your website after viewing a specific page. Evaluating which pages lead visitors to leave your site might mean that the content you are providing is not what the visitor expected. Perhaps small changes can be made to specific webpages to capture traffic and retain the website visitor's interest.

Top Incoming Pages

What pages are bringing visitors into your website? Perhaps you have a webpage buried deep within your site that unexpectedly generates a significant amount of traffic. Perhaps you have an obscure page in your site that contains odd or unusual phrases that perform surprisingly well in the search engines. Can the results be reproduced by using a related phrase on a similar webpage?

Top Search Words & Phrases

What keywords and phrases are customers using to find your website? The keywords that do not appear prevalent in the web logs can be just as important. Are there specific phrases you are attempting to optimize for, but are not generating the desired traffic? Perhaps renewed effort needs to be applied to website optimization.

Unique Visitors

How many unique visitors does your website receive? Is the trend increasing or decreasing? The number of unique visitors (note: not the number of hits) can be a good indicator of a website's popularity, and any trends that might relate to that popularity.

Average Time Spent And Page Views

How much time is spent on the website? How much time is spent on a specific webpage? Webmasters will often attract traffic by using catchy titles, but then the actual page content fails to deliver, and the website visitor ends up simply clicking away. Take a close look at the length of time your website visitors spend across a website and on specific pages. Consider what tweaks can be made to better harness and retain that web traffic.

Browsers

Evaluating the various web browsers being used by your website visitors can tell you two things - what browsers you should be testing your website in, AND, what Operating System your customers have. Are you getting a lot of Mac traffic but only offer a windows product? Maybe you can partner with a competing Mac product and capture some of that market.

Country of Origin

The country of origin might be helpful if you are considering localization. It can also be helpful if you see a lot of PPC (Pay Per Click) traffic coming from a country that does not generate a lot sales. This means you are paying for traffic which is NOT resulting in sales.

Log analysis is an ongoing process. Pay particular attention to trends and traffic patterns. Understanding web logs will give you an insight into what is working and what is not working. The numbers seldom lie — statistics gleaned from web logs can give a true picture of how a website is performing. By critically analyzing the numbers, webmasters can effectively optimize their website to better capture and hold on to web traffic.

While the information contained in web logs is very helpful in discern what designs are working, and what path users take in your website, keep in mind that the MOST important information to evaluate is the traffic that results in sales. Work with your order processing company to determine what keywords and advertisements lead to sales. The goal of any advertising campaign is not to just bring web traffic, but to bring web traffic that ultimately decides to buy your product or service.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

Like most things on the planet, faxing has entered the computer age, can companies who are still tied to the old fax machine remain competitive in our ultra modern world?

It can no longer be denied, there is definitely a new way to fax. One that is paperless, mobile, convenient and a lot simpler than the old fax machine. Faxing has entered the computer age.

Actually the old traditional fax machine's days may just be numbered as more and more individuals and companies switch their faxing services over to Internet or Email Fax; there has been a definite shift in how faxing is done.

For those still living in the Dark Ages, a little explanation may be in order. Internet Fax is simply using the Internet and your email system to do your faxing. Faxes are sent as email attachments, usually in TIF, PDF or JPEG formats, and because your send and receive your faxes via the web, there is no need for the old fax machine or a second phone line. It can all be done from your PC and your online fax service site.

Some well known Internet fax service providers are MyFax, eFax, TrustFax, RingCentral, Rapidfax, Send2fax… as well as lesser-known yet very good services such as Faxage out of Denver and MetroFax out of Seattle.

There is a small service charge for these faxing services that can be a very modest ($20 a year) to around $10-$15 a month - depending on your faxing needs. Keep in mind, international faxing rates will be more expensive.

Why use Internet Fax?

Mainly because online faxing is much more convenient; you can send and receive your faxes anywhere, anytime. It is completely mobile, you can access it wherever you have the Internet and these days that's just about everywhere.

Since it is paperless, Internet Fax is also more environmentally friendly. According to Energy Star, a U.S. environmental protection agency, copiers and fax machines are the most energy-intensive types of business equipment because they are paper-intensive and are left on 24 hours a day. Remember, paper production in terms of energy used is second only to petroleum, so using less paper products can only be seen as a good practice.

Internet Fax can also be more economical, especially in regards to start up costs for small companies or individuals since there is no extra phone line and you really don't need a fax machine. No inks, no paper…

Perhaps, one of the most important, yet often overlooked reasons for having or using Internet Fax is competitiveness. In our fast paced, computerized working environment, being constantly connected to your loyal customers and clients is a major plus. In certain industries and companies, being reachable and available at all times simply makes good business sense. Internet Fax can give you a slight competitive edge in a very competitive world. It's your call?

For more information on Internet Fax Services & Pricing try this handy online Fax Comparison Guide: http://www.onlinefaxguide.com
Or why not grab a copy of this convenient Fax Guide as it contains all the information you need for choosing an Internet Fax service:
http://www.internetfaxguide.org
Titus Hoskins 2008. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Who offers free blog hosting?

Many sites offer free blog hosting. Among them are Forumer, Blogger, BlogEasy, Aeonity, BlogThing, and Blogates. A quick search for free blog on Google reveals many possibilities.

What software can I use to host my own blog?

Like free blog hosting, there are many possibilities for software that makes hosting your own blog easy. Most of them are free to use. These include:

WordPress(the most popular software), Apache, Roller, Blosxom, Geeklog, Textpattern, LifeType.

There is also blog software which you can purchase for use on your site. These include:

Community, Server, Movable, Type, Radio, UserLand.

One negative about using software and hosting your own blog is that the process can often times be complicated. You have to download the software and install it to your server, which doesn't always go easily. It's particularly hard for those who don't have a lot of experience installing things on servers.

Why should I remotely host my blog at a place like Blogger?

Places like Blogger allow you to host your blog there. It's a good option for many people.

The Pros

It's easy to set up and maintain a blog. You don't have to go through the trouble of installing software and configuring it to work on your server. All you have to do is sign up for an account and start posting.   It's friendly for beginning bloggers. Sites that host blogs offer good tutorials on how to make your blog postings, so that even someone who is completely new to the concept of blogging can do it easily.   Most blog hosting sites are completely free to use. There is no need to pay for things like a domain name and hosting.   Monetizing your blog is easy. Rather than having to manually put HTML/Javascript codes on your blog to manually set up things like AdSense and Pay Per Click advertising, you can select an option on most blog hosting sites that does much of the work for you.

The Cons

You don't have as many options to customize your blog. Remotely hosted blogs are admittedly somewhat limited in terms of what you can actually do on them. You have to stick with what is provided to you in terms of look and features.   The URL you get is always yourname.BLOGSITE.com. You don't get to have a custom domain name like YOURNAME.com. This can possibly hurt traffic to your blog.   Blogs hosted on free blog sites don't look as professional as self hosted blogs.

Why should I self-host my blog?

The Pros

You have more options and more flexibility. You are able to tweak the blog to your liking.   Your URL is your address for your blog. Rather than having go to where your blog is hosted to read it, they can read it right from your site.   The ability to make your blog look professional. Blogs that are hosted on sites of their own tend to look a lot better than those hosted on free sites.   More space for your blog. Free blog sites usually place a restriction on how much space you have for things like photos and music. By hosting your own blog, you are able to use as much space as you need. The Cons

There are sometimes problems with setting up blog software to run on your site and server. If you aren't experienced when it comes to working with mySQL, the process will be hard.   Updates aren't as easy to post.   You have to manually set up programs to monetize your blog. However, if you are good with HTML/Javascript, this shouldn't be too hard.   You have to pay for your own hosting and domain

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both. Which should you choose? Well, it depends on who you are and what you intend to use your blog for. If you intend to use it for business, then a self-hosted blog is the best idea. If it's a personal blog, then a free hosted blog will probably be fine for you.

Chris Haycock is an information publisher, specialising in helping others start and run their own successfull internet businesses. To find out more about the above, and to get an absolutely no cost two hour business blueprint video, go to http://www.easyebizz.com

1. Draw Attention

Use titles to attract the reader's attention to the blog post. The title should mimic newspaper headlines and generate interest in the blog post. The title can be controversial, but not to the extent of being misleading. Use action words in the title. Bloggers will often come up with a handful of potential titles for blog posts, and then settle on the title that is best suited to a particular blog post.

2. Deliver

Having a catchy title, but following it with content that fails to deliver, will not endear you to your readers. The blog content must deliver what is promised in the blog title, or readers will unsubscribe and stop reading. When deciding on a blog title, do not stray too far from the content, as the two are intricately related — the title will attract the reader's attention, but the content must then live up to expectations… or the blogger's reputation will suffer.

3. Accurate

Nothing stains a blogger's reputation like inaccurate information, so be sure that your blog posts contain accurate information. Intentionally posting inaccurate or false information will significantly damage a blogger's reputation. But if an error unintentionally or inadvertently occurs in a blog post, be sure to quickly post a retraction or correction, along with an explanation and an apology in order to salvage your good reputation.

4. Relevant & Timely

Blog posts should always be relevant and timely. Hearing about something long after it has occurred will not captivate readers. Blog about information that is occurring in the here and now. If you are going to write something that is no longer timely, be sure to add some sort of twist, or include new or updated information to make it relevant.

5. On Topic

All blogs should have a general theme that connects all the posts on the blog. Readers will expect posts that are related, so stay true to the blog's theme and topic.

6. Use Keywords

Use keywords liberally in blog posts. Search engines will attempt to categorize the content of a blog post and discern its general topic. By including related keywords or keyword phrases, search engines will have an easier time classifying the blog's contents. Additionally, a blog that uses keywords will have a better chance of ranking well for those keywords or keyword phrases in organic search listings.

7. Evaluate Web Logs

Review web logs to determine what blog posts have been popular with readers. Then figure out how to provide similar or related content that might also be of interest to those readers.

8. Original

Blog posts should always contain original and unique content. If you are simply re-posting information from others, include editorial content or a different spin to the information. Readers do not want to constantly rehash the same information — they are interested in reading new material.

9. Chunky Content

Break content into smaller, readable chunks. Most website visitors will just scan paragraphs for information, and very few will take the time to read all the words contained in a post. Use bulleted lists, or break web copy into paragraphs with bolded sub-topics that appear before the paragraphs.

Writing blog posts is not just about spewing forth content. The best blogs are well thought out, and contain provocative and interesting unique content. Follow the above steps to produce a relevant blog worth reading.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.