Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Do You Splog or Blog? - Affiliate Marketers with Wordpress Beware

By Cynthia Mosher

If you are just getting started creating an affiliate marketing business online, one of the easiest ways to do so is to get a blog at Wordpress.com. It's free, it's easy, and you can be up and running in minutes. However, an affiliate marketing blog on Wordpress.com can be shut down before you can say why. Why? because of the Wordpress definitions of a spam blog that are often overlooked. So, do you splog or blog? Are you a splogger or a blogger?

A blog that is operating with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs fall into the Wordpress category of "splog." Wordpress defines an affiliate marketing blog as one it will ban. Wordpress states:

Affiliate marketing blogs: Blogs with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs. To be clear, examples like people writing original book or movie reviews and linking them to Amazon, or people linking to their own products on Etsy do NOT fall into this category. We're only talking about blogs that are primarily designed to promote different affiliate programs.

If this is your blogging strategy, get thy self your own domain and hosting company and get Wordpress installed on it. By doing so you avoid the risk of having your website removed. Nick at Wordpress Support told me that the Wordpress.com Terms of Service do not apply to the self-hosted version of Wordpress that you download at Wordpress.org. That software is free for you to use as you please with no restrictions or requirements regarding splogging or blogging in any way. Good news for those of us on our own websites. Good information for you if you are just getting ready to build a blog and use it for affiliate marketing information and sales.

As for affiliate marketers already established on a Wordpress.com host blog site, certainly you have concerns about moving to a new website as that would entail changing all of your URLs and losing the pagerank and traffic avenues you have established with your links. I suggest you write to the folks at Wordpress and ask them what you can do to comply with their terms of service to avoid being banned as a splogger. Do it now. It will give you peace of mind and if you are at threat you can begin restructuring your site to comply with what Wordpress will require of you to be able to keep your blog.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Cynthia Mosher has been working online since 1998. She shares her advice and experience on working at home and internet and affiliate marketing at her website Wahm Daily.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

How to Manage Multiple Blogs Effectively

By Guardian Angel

Managing a single blog will need your countless effort and focus. Not to mention that you may have other important things to attend to. But what if you decide to have more than one blog? Although you really want to blog about other things you are interested about, you are hesitant to do this because you think that you cannot make it. Being a multiple blog owner myself, I would like to share how I am doing this, and somehow they may also be applicable to you.

Promote them fairly
On each of your blogs, you can show to your readers that you have other blogs by placing their titles with a link on your sidebars. Once in a while, mention them in one of your articles if applicable. But never promote them directly unless it is related to your post. This will loose the appetite of your visitors and they will never visit again. However, it is not practical to include them in your e-mail or forum signature if you have more than five blogs.

Relate them to each other
If your blogs has totally different topics from each other, it is quite hard to promote them fairly. It will also take a longer time to submit to article and blog directories since they will fall in different categories. Having a common denominator among your blogs will make you easier to promote them. There are a lot of ways to do it if you will be creative enough.

Do not pressure yourself
If you rush your posts just to update your blogs, you may tend to make a useless post, which can easily be noticed by your readers. Remember that it is not necessary to post every day. Posting at least three times a week is more than enough to keep all your blogs alive. If you are relaxed, you can think a lot of wonderful ideas to make your posts attractive to readers.

Have a lot of useful resources
It takes a lot of time to make a good post; and multiplying that to the number of your blogs will be equal to very long hours if you do not have enough resources. Do not rely on your ideas alone. If you have a topic on your mind, using other articles as your reference will make it faster. However, just be sure that you will be making your own version and not just copying all the content.

Make a showcase
A showcase is like an article directory where you can put all the articles from different blogs. However, instead of placing in different categories, quote each post or put the first three sentences with a link to the original blog where the post came from. In this way, you are promoting all your blogs simultaneously.

You may not have to be always fair to all your blogs. But make it a point to be fair to your readers because it is your obligation to them.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

I am a Filipino engineer who found himself more comfortable in writing letters instead of numbers, and interacting with humans rather than machines. For more quality articles about blogging tips, internet marketing techniques and other making money on-line strategies, please feel free to visit Humane Blogging Tips at http://www.wherebloggersandhumansmeet.blogspot.com

How To Convince Blog Owners That You Are A Good Guest Blogger

By Guardian Angel

After you have decided that you can be a good guest blogger, it is now time to find a blog where you can apply and submit a guest post. Although there are a lot of bloggers who want some guest bloggers for their blogs, you are a bit hesitant because you are afraid that your hard work might end up nothing. It is very disappointing to know that someone has rejected you which can make you loose your confidence. Chances are you will not apply again to avoid further humiliation. However, since it is your dream to become one, you must plan carefully just like any other activity. So before applying, here are some good points to be considered.

Prepare an advance post. Having the right post for guest blogging is different from your usual ones. It must be well crafted and refined carefully. Blog owners will not have time to correct your grammar and spelling. Besides preparing an original post specially made for guest blogging, it should also identify you as yourself and not as the blog owner you wish to join with. Take note that the blog owner might be visiting your blog before approving it. He does not want his readers to be dissatisfied with his guest bloggers.

Prepare your best sample posts. Before approval, most blog owners may ask samples of your quality posts to be submitted to him. They will be your passport or resume proving that you have the qualifications he needs as his guest blogger. Be sure that they are related to his blog and can attract readers just like your guest posts. The blog owner will therefore assume that if you can write quality posts for your blog, you can also write a better post for him.

Be familiar with each other. Leaving good comments to some of his posts may help you to introduce yourself prior to application. Although he may not reply on your comments, he can recognize you when you apply for guest blogging. This also means that you are familiar with him and you are really interested to join him and not for the sole purpose of promoting yourself. You do not have to be one of his subscribers, but by visiting his blog frequently, you can also have an idea what kind of guest post he likes.

Be humble. Remember that you are asking for a favor, so do not tell him that you are the best guest blogger he can ever find. Moreover, do not act like you are his big fan where in fact, it is just your second time to visit his blog. It is best that you will tell the truth about your ability and knowledge instead of being proud for the things that you really do not know. If you are not familiar with Wordpress, be humble to admit it. After all, if he is interested in you, he will guide you all the way.

Be enthusiastic. Show him how much happy you are to be featured in his blog. It can also boost your self-confidence as a guest blogger. If this is your first time, tell him how much honored you are to have his blog as your first experience. Make him feel comfortable so he may prioritize your offer other than someone else. Be sure you have time to check your mails regularly for his reply. If you reply late, he might think you are just fooling around and not really interested at all.

If after doing all of these and you still got rejected, do not pout because there is always a second chance. Consider it as a challenge to make the next one better.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

I am a Filipino engineer who found himself more comfortable in writing letters instead of numbers, and interacting with humans rather than machines. For more quality articles about blogging tips, internet marketing techniques and other making money on-line strategies, please feel free to visit Humane Blogging Tips at www.wherebloggersandhumansmeet.blogspot.com.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

How To Get People To Cite Your Posts On Their Blogs

By Court

The popularity of your blog is crucial to its success and growth so it can be a major source of income for you through the use of the Internet. One of the major and most important parts of a blog site are the posts that you publish on the site over a specific time period. These posts are often renewed on a weekly basis in order to keep people coming back to learn about new information.

One way that bloggers can increase the popularity of their site is by having other people cite your posts in their own blogs. The more that this specific action occurs the more valuable your blog posts will become to the online world of blogging. There are a number of ways that will help increase your chances of getting people to cite your posts on their own blogs.

The main thing for blog designers to remember is the importance of the web pages content and what is published on it. The quality and effectiveness of a web sites content will determine if the online business is recognized by other blog owners and therefore increase its amount of traffic flow. There are a few techniques that blog designers can use to increase their popularity among both blog owners and Internet users.

People must remember that the quality of writing on a web site is extremely important. If you want your blog posts to be cited by other blogs, then web page writers should use certain key words that visitors use to search the Internet. The titles and subtitles of the blog posts should also be carefully written so that it will have a higher probability of being looked up by Internet users through the use of search engines.

With every blog post that you publish online, it should be quite lengthy and contain at least two hundred words. This allows search engines to pick up more of the keywords that Internet users will be looking for and will then link to your specific blog site. If your blog posts are too short, then there will not be enough information for the search engines to share with other people.

Another great way for you to get other blog owners to cite things on your blog is through the use of attractive and unique images. Images are one of the best mediums for grasping the attention of Internet visitors and will be one of the best methods for you to spread the news about an important blog post or article. If you include special images in your blog posts that relate to the specific articles, then your chances of being cited by other bloggers will grow tremendously.

You can also use special one-liners or memorable stories in your articles that will enhance a persons reading and understanding. People usually remember stories much better than they remember facts and boring information. Always try to make your articles as interesting and exciting as possible in order to become cited by other bloggers.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Court provides information about personal loans and helps people understand home business opportunity reviews.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Tips For Maximizing Your Google Adsense Revenues

By raj kumar

Despite what you may hear, the Google AdSense program is not for everyone. There are some types of web sites that do poorly no matter how hard the owners try, and there are others that should be doing well but the webmaster simply isn’t putting in the effort to make things happen. Here are some tips to make AdSense work better for you. If you do them all and you’re still not having any luck, then you just might be running one of those sites that don’t make money.

1. Determine if your visitors are “in the mood”

Like I mentioned at the top of this article, some web sites just don’t work with pay-per-click programs. The best performing sites fall into one of these categories:

• Sites where users go and expect to buy something while they are there. E-commerce sites fit the bill here.

• Sites where users go to find specific information on something that they want to buy now. Music and video review sites, vacation information sites, resume building sites, etc. You don’t have to actually be selling these types of things; your site can just be a Mecca for information pertaining to these things. Then, when the visitor comes to read your content, they are more likely to click on your ads.

• Sites where people who have disposable income and a credit card like to visit. This includes sites with money management, investing and lifestyle content.

• Sites that draw a large amount of new users every day. Free coupon sites and “How to” sites are good examples.

• Sites where people who expect to read ads go. Classified ads and shopping comparison sites fit into this category.

2. Make sure that your visitors don’t feel that you just want to grab their money

Give them plenty of relevant and well-written content. If writing isn’t your best skill then hire someone to do it for you. Good content brings steady traffic and steady traffic pays the bills.

3. Play by the rules

Google has some very specific Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) for participating in their AdSense program. Learn those rules and follow them so you don’t lose all of your investment by getting shut out.

4. Use the tools that Google gives you

Google gives you tools for determining the best keywords for your site, measuring ad performance, and setting up different ad “channels” for fine-tuning ad results. These guys and girls are the 800 lb. Gorillas in the Pay-Per-Click market. They didn’t build these tools just to keep their programmers busy. Take advantage of their knowledge for they are very big and you are not!

5. Tweak, fine-tune and then tweak again

You should never be happy with your AdSense performance. If it’s good, then you need to make it great. If it’s great then you need to make it amazing. If it’s amazing then you need to take it to the UPS club. The UPS club? Google sends all checks over $10,000 per month to the webmaster via UPS overnight delivery. Now there’s a club that I wouldn’t mind belonging to.

6. Get more traffic

No matter how much traffic you have, you need more. More eyeballs translate to more clicks. Even if you’re only pulling a 2% click-through. That’s a lot of clicks when you have thousands of visitors each day.

7. Experiment with new keywords

New keywords can bring new ads and new eyeballs along with it. Set up some new pages on your site and experiment with different content. Once you get something that’s working then refer back to Tip # 5.

You can see results in near real time when you use Google’s AdWords. Don’t be afraid to be different. If something that everyone else is doing doesn’t work for you, then invent something that does work and get it on your site.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

For more Free Resources www.googleatmcash.com

Friday, February 15, 2008

Safe Ways To Make Your Own Online Videos

By Jo Han Mok

In the recent years, the popularity of online video websites has skyrocketed. Online video websites are websites that not only allow internet users to watch the videos that are hosted on their site, but many also give internet users the opportunity to create their own videos.

If you are interested in making your online video, like a large number of individuals are, there are some important factors that you should keep in mind. One of those factors is your safety.

What is nice about online video websites is that you can create just about any video you want. A number of popular video websites have rules and restrictions on the content that is allowed; however, it is understandable.

These restrictions often prohibit videos with threats and pornographic materials. Even with these restrictions in place, there are still a wide variety of different videos that you can make, but you are still advised to be cautious when doing so.

As previously mentioned, most video sites allow you make and share a video on just about whatever you want. Online, you will find videos that promote particular products, videos that are considered unscripted taping, how-to videos, and personal videos.

When it comes to personal videos, internet users tend to include information about themselves or a funny story. Although this may make for an interesting video, for safety reasons, you need to be concerned with what you are recording and posting.

Video websites are video by millions of internet users, often on a daily basis. This means that there is a good chance that people that you do not even know will be able to find your video and watch it. Since you do not know who will be watching your video, you have no idea what they are like or what their mental status is. You should treat your online videos as if you would when talking to a stranger; you need to be careful with how much information you provide.

If you are making a homemade video, with a personal touch, there is a good chance that you will be the one in front of your camera. In most cases, it is safe to show your own face. Millions of internet video makers have done so, but it is a different story to include your personal information.

In the event that you want to introduce yourself, you are advised only to use your first name. You may even want to think about creating another name to use just for your video, sort of like a pen name. Depending on who watches your online video, it could be risky to put a name to your face.

In addition to your full name, you never should give your address out. That also includes your city or your state. With motive and means, someone who watches your online video could easily obtain your full address just by knowing the city or the state in which you live in.

The same should be said for your phone number. With a legitimate phone number, someone could easily get your address online. Essentially, if there is something that you do not want a stranger to known about you, do not put it in your online video.

Even though you should not include your personal information in one of your online videos, there are still a number of individuals who do. These individuals do this for different reasons, but many are looking for online friends or someone to date.

You are advised against using online video websites, such as Google Video or YouTube, for those purposes. If you are looking to find a new friend or a partner, you are advised to rely on online dating websites. Many of those websites have special security measures in place that are designed to keep you safe. Online video websites do not.

By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to use online video websites without any problem. As long as you are cautious about the videos you post, the experience should be a pleasurable one.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. He shares his amazing blueprint for creating million dollar internet businesses at: www.InternetMillionaireBlueprints.com

Thursday, February 14, 2008

How To Have Passion In Your Blog

By Court

People always say that you should love what you do. Unfortunately for a lot of people, this is not something that is realistic for them. But how can you make it possible to love your work? If you are a blogger, this might just be an achievable goal in your life.

Many times when people start their own blog or site, they easily get frustrated or concerned when it seems like no one is reading or clicking on their ads. What can you do to enjoy your site and make sure that others are enjoying it too?

Write What You Would Want to Read

If you expect people to read your blog, they expect you to write something worth reading. How much time a day do you spend reading things that you do not enjoy or that don't benefit you? None. So don't expect others to read meaningless blogs. Write things that you would want to read. Fill your site with content that has value to your readers.

Many times people will focus more on the ads than on the actual content they place on the page. This is a big mistake. You should not try to attract traffic based on ads. You have to have great information for them to read, enjoy and want to return to your site. Think of what you would want to learn about and then write about it.

Blogging Can Be a Full-Time Job

At times, people believe that having a blog means that you do little work, gain lots of money and have all the time in the world to do what you want. But as most bloggers know, it is not like this at all. In the business world, anything that is worth it requires time, patience and a lot of effort.

If you are currently thinking of starting a blog, plan on investing lots of time. Especially when you are just starting on developing your blog, you will need to spend lots of time. It may not be the most fun at first, but after a few months you will see the benefits.

Keep in mind that at times you may just have to endure it. Spending 16 hours a day working on your blog may not be how you had imagined your new business. Try to maintain a positive attitude and focus on the benefits of your site.

Stick With It

Having a blog is hard work but stick with it. Things always seem to get a bit easier with time and as your knowledge increases. You can develop a true love and passion for your blog. And then run with it. Make it your passion. If you are feeling bored with your blog, make changes until it makes you happy again.

There are many different ways that you can take what you have and love it. Just try different methods until to you find what works the very best for you. And stick with it. It will be worth it in the end.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Court is an internet marketing consultant and helps people to learn about internet marketing.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Monetizing Your Blog

By Court

When it comes to blogging, it seems that the industry has recently just taken off and many people are becoming successful and making money by running their blogs right. There are many different options when it comes to making money with your blog. But how do you know exactly what to do if you are just starting out?

There are a lot of things to consider if you want to have a succesful blog and monetize it. Remember that every blog is different and the way that you run yours will be different than the next person. But that doesn't mean that you are doing it right or wrong. Just try a few methods and see what gives you the best results.

Take A Look At Advertising

Depending on what kind of feel you want your blog to have, the advertising is a large part of monetizing your blog. There are a lot of different options that are available for you -- everything from contextual advertising to display advertising and much more. Try to find what method is going to work good on your blog and stick to.

What is Contextual Advertising?

It might be that when you think of contextual advertising, the first thing that comes to your mind is Google Adsense. If you are new to blogging you may feel left out in the dark. Google Adsense and other contextual advertising means that they can go through your content and match advertisements that are relavent to your blog. There are lots of different contextual advertisers but you need to find the one that works best for you.

For a lot of blogs, this is a great way to deal with advertising. They do not have to deal with finding advertisers for their blog or managing all the accounts. They don't have to try and deal with changes in advertising and all the complications that come with it. On the other side, some peole feel that this is a more impersonal form of advertising.

What is Display Advertising?

Display advertising is different from contextual in that you would get paid for every time the ad is viewed, not just clicked on like in contextual advertising. This is a good idea for someone who has not had good results with contextual advertising. It is a completely different type of advertising though, so study it out before you make the switch.

Try to get a good variety of ads on your page if you do decide to use display advertising. This can be hard sometimes but there are a lot of companies out there for you to choose from. Try to find the one that will fit all of your and your blogs needs and stick with it.

There are so many different ways to deal with advertising and monetizing your blog, but these are just a few basic ideas. You may have to go out on a limb and try something new and creative and see what happens. But be creative and have fun.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Court is an internet marketing consultant and helps people to learn about internet marketing.

Monday, February 11, 2008

How to Grow Your Blog Fast

By Court

In most cases, newly created blogs start off very slow and require a lot of time and hard work to keep them going. Many blog owners become quickly frustrated with how slow a blog is progressing and soon give up on the whole process of making it successful. This frustration and lack of patience explains why there are so many abandoned and ineffective web pages on the Internet today.

Many blog owners ask the question of whether or not there is a magic solution available to use that will enhance a blog's success in a much quicker and rapid way. There really is not a magic formula that you can use, or else everyone would be using it and it would soon lose its power from overuse. There is another equation, however, that if used effectively with hard work and effort would help your blog grow faster than you ever thought you could.

This particular equation can be divided in to three main parts: blog material, proper marketing, and solid online relations. The combination of these three important aspects will help build your blog to quickly become popular and profitable.

Blog Material
The most important part about a blog is the type of material that is published on it for Internet visitors to see and use. This material should be carefully designed and placed on the blog so that it is attractive to people who are seeking for information. The material needs to also be produced at the highest quality possible, in order to look professional and provide crucial knowledge about the blog's main category or topic.

Another part of the material has to do with the type of text that is placed on the blog. Every article that is published needs to contain information that is both relevant to the blog's theme and exciting for any visitor to read. The articles are the main part of the blog and are what will help build your blog's popularity in a fast and effective way. Remember to always write high quality articles that will attract a large portion of people that use the Internet on a frequent basis.

Proper Marketing
In order to quickly build up your blog's reputation, you need to perform a lot of effective marketing. This can be accomplished through the principle of networking, which means that you basically spread the information about your blog to as many people as you possibly can. There are many ways that you can tell people about your blog, some of which include email, face to face contact, and the publication of links.

Solid Online Relations
The final way to help your blog grow faster than you ever thought possible would be to establish online relationships with other bloggers and web site owners. Creating solid relationships with these people will have a direct, positive effect on your blog. They will refer their traffic flow to your blog and make comments about it that are positive and profitable for you.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Court provides information about college student loans and helps people refine their internet marketing strategy.

Making A Great First Impression On Your Blog Visitors

By Court

There is an expression that says, "first impressions are lasting impressions." This phrase is very true and can be applied in a number of different situations that deal primarily with the interactions of people. Normally, when you meet someone for the first time, you want to make a positive and memorable first impression so that the other person will like you and help you in the future.

Although making great first impressions has mainly been applied to the close interactions of people who meet for the first time, there are many other situations where this truth is equally as important. If you own your own business, leaving a positive first impression with your customers is crucial to your success and profitability. A negative first impression will threaten the growth of your company and cause you to inevitably lose valuable customers and sales.

The same philosophy applies to the Internet and all of the different web sites that have been created throughout the last decade or so. As an owner and creator of a web page, you want to attract as many visitors to the site as you possibly can. This is mainly accomplished by making a great first impression on all of your visitors.

One of the newest and most common types of web sites on the Internet today is called blog, which helps people to share information about various topics and ideas. Blogs have the same objectives as ordinary web sites, the most important being to attract as many visitors as possible. In order to attract more and more blog visitors you must make a very positive first impression with them.

Making a great first impression on your blog visitors can be done in quite a few ways and should be applied to your blog as soon as possible in order to experience fast effects. The following are a few suggestions that will help improve your blog's image and reputation to first time visitors.

Simplified Title
The most important part of introducing your blog to a new visitor is to inform them on what your blog is all about. This can be accomplished by designing and publishing a main title that is both extremely attractive and easy to read. When a first time visitor arrives at your blog, they should be able to tell what your site is all about just by reading and understanding your appealing title.

Home Page Content
After a visitor sees your title, they will then scroll down to look at what types of things are published throughout the rest of the blog. Your blog's home page should be very well organized and display the highest quality content that you have created. This will ensure that people will want to keep coming back visit your blog again and again.

Contact Information
At the end of your home page, there should be a place where first time visitors can contact you with questions, comments, or concerns. Making the visitor feel important and welcome to your blog will leave them with a great desire to always be a part of your blog.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Court provides information about student loans and helps people refine their hosting internet marketing strategy.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

How to Choose a Blogging Platform

By Stephanie Foster

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to set up a website. Pick a topic, blogging platform, host and theme/template for your blog, and start writing. It's low cost and can be a lot of fun.

Picking a Blog Topic

Just about anything will do, depending on your goals. Blogs have become successful businesses on all kinds of topics.

However, your blog needs to be on something that you can write consistently about while maintaining your readers' interest. If you can only come up with a few post ideas you might not have the right topic for a blog.

While choosing your topic really has little to do with your blogging platform, it is so relevant to starting a blog that it is worth mentioning. It can also matter when it comes to deciding how serious you are about your blog, which can impact the platform you choose.

Choosing Your Blogging Platform

Blogger and Wordpress are the most popular options out there, but there are several others worth considering, such as Typepad.

Blogger is not especially flexible, but it's very easy for beginners to use. Some people like to just learn to blog with Blogger, then move on to more powerful options once they understand what they're doing. There's good and bad to this.

The good is that if you really mess up early on, it's easy to abandon the blog and start fresh. You can do this with other options too, but when blogging platforms have more options you're increasing your overall learning curve. Blogger also has an adequate number of templates available to you.

The bad is that if you want to get serious and move to self hosted there's no easy way to forward your traffic. Blogger also lacks a lot of functionality. You won't miss it while you don't have it, but if you someday switch, you will know the difference.

Platforms such as Wordpress, on the other hand, offer much more functionality and aren't really that much harder to learn in my opinion. You have a lot more flexibility when it comes to themes (what your blog looks like) and how it functions.

Choosing Your Host

Both Blogger and Wordpress have hosted options for blogs on their sites. Free hosting has the obvious advantage of free, but for blogs that you want to build a business with they are rarely the right option.

Wordpress in particular is picky about what you do with your blog when you're on their hosting. You're very limited in what you can do to earn money with a Wordpress-hosted blog. It's their hosting and they do delete blogs.

Blogger is less picky about advertising and earning money on their blogs, but they also have the right to delete your blog and it does happen. Most often is when a blog is reported as spam. If you miss that hint that someone has reported your blog, it can vanish. A good clue is if you suddenly have to fill in the CAPTCHA form when one was not present before.

In both cases, you also don't have your own domain name. This can make you appear to be less serious about your blog and make it harder to earn money from it.

Choosing the right host will make a difference. Hosting is very cheap these days, and you can get great hosting packages for under $10 a month. Domain names can be had for under $10 per year. It's an exceptionally affordable form of home business.

You want a host that has a good reputation. This can be difficult to figure out, since most recommendations will come from affiliates, and it's hard to come across genuine reviews. But most sites do have forums or blogs where they communicate with current and potential customers, and you can see how problems are handled there.

Most hosts offer one click install of the Wordpress software. Wordpress has no worries about how you use their software on other sites, only on their own.

Picking a Theme/Template

Depending on how you're hosted, you may have a lot of choices for blog themes or just a few. It also depends on how hard you research the matter and how much customization you are comfortable with doing.

Blogger has 30+ templates available on their site, and you can change them around to meet your own preferences. Wordpress offers a range of themes when you host through their site, but if you're hosting your own Wordpress blog, the number of themes available goes out the roof. You can even have someone design a theme for you.

Your theme should go well with your topic. The more relevant you can make it, the more appealing your blog will be visually to visitors.

Once you have your blog set up, it's up to you to fill it with content that will interest your visitors. Blogging can be fun, stressful, time consuming and sometimes even profitable. There's a lot to learn to make the most of it, but the best way to learn is to simply get started.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.aspectsofhomebusiness.com/blog about running a home business. If you want to learn more about starting a home business, she offers a series on that at her site.