Choosing the Best Free Blogs

Whenever you're first starting on the Internet, there is going to be a lot of information coming your way that seems to be conflicting. A good example of this is whenever you are first starting to put up a website. Some people will argue that static pages are by far the best type of website to establish, but to tell you the truth, that is rather old thinking. Personally, my experience has proven that it is a much better idea for you to choose from some of the best free blogs that are out there in order to get your message across to the masses.

There are a number of different blog services that you can choose from, some of which will run directly on your domain and others that are outside services which are free to use as well. Choosing from these best free blogs really depends on what you plan on doing with your business on the Internet. For example, if you're interested in getting started on a shoestring budget you can pick up an account at Blogger.com and have your blog online within just a few minutes. Since this blogging service is owned and operated by Google, you should not have a difficult time attracting traffic from the search engine.

Another of the best free blogs that you can choose from is Wordpress. You can either get an account directly with Wordpress and use their servers or you can download their blogging software and install it directly on your own servers. One of the reasons why you might want to avoid using Wordpress directly on their servers is because they do limit the amount of advertising and commercial blogging that you do. If you are simply interested in blogging in the pure form, you should be perfectly fine using the service directly. If, on the other hand, you're interested in how to make make from a blog then you most certainly should buy a domain name and put the Wordpress software directly on your server.

Whether you are going to use these blogging services on your server or on their servers is not something that should be taken lightly as the effects can really be overwhelming. If you choose your keywords wisely and if you are persistent in your blogging efforts, you can use any of these best free blogs that are available in order to take your business to the next level.


To learn how to use the best free blogs to make money on the Internet, make sure to sign up for our FREE Blogging Secrets e-Course at http://www.BloggingProductAnalysis.com

If You Build It, They Will Come but a Little Help Doesn't Hurt

You have just finished setting up your first blog, got it looking just right, posted your first article and now you wait. Your content is good, you have viewpoints you want to share with others but how to attract visitors (ie traffic) to your door?

"If you build it, they will come" might be true but how long must you wait before anyone realizes that your site actually exists. A blog like any other business needs traffic in order to survive. There is no harm in using tools, which are already available to you, to increase your exposure and the best thing about them is that they won't cost you a dime.

Probably the most ignored and useful tool that a blogger has at his disposal is the RSS feed. Say what? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is the equivalent of having a 100% free ezine subscription service. The trick is to submit your RSS feed URL to as many RSS directories as possible. Then each time you post new material on your blog, this is syndicated to your RSS feed and the directories display your latest posts. Lists of RSS directories can be easily found with a simple Google search. Most blogging software such as Wordpress and blogging sites such as Blogger.com come with a built in RSS feed - so make use of it.

Leaving a comment on others blogs is another effective method to attract targeted traffic and to establish firm one way backlinks to your site which in the long run also improve your search engine listings. Find blogs which are somewhat similar in content to your own and post relevant insightful comments in an area in which you are familiar. If your comment is “O.K.'d” by the blog owner then your link will go live. There are numerous free software packages available, one being “ Blog Detective 2.0 ”, which can save you time and effort searching for blogs manually to leave comments on and building backlinks. It also displays the Page Rank of each of the individual blog posts, the home page of the blogs and whether you have left comments on this blog before. A very useful tool and free!

Social bookmarking is of paramount importance in promoting your website but submitting your link to each individual site can be a time consuming task. However there is a site, www.SocialMarker.com, which can greatly reduce the time and effort needed to socially bookmark a website and it is free. Here you can atomatically submit your blog to over 120 Social bookmarking sites. All that you supply is the title of your site, it's URL, a brief description and the keywords (tags) that you wish to be searched for. Voila! All done and the backlinks to increase your page ranking and targeted traffic should soon follow..


These are just 3 of many ways to explode your blog traffic. It's possible to reach dizzy levels of traffic for your new blog right from day one when you have an arsenal of blogger’s traffic tactics at your disposal. Check out http://blogging4bucks.youwanted2know.com for more details... and pick up your free copy of 'Blog Detective ' at the-Savvy-Shopper.com

What Blog Software Should I Use?

So you want to create a blog but you aren't sure what blogging service will best fit your needs. Welcome to the club! There are a number of great options out there but each service has its own strengths and weaknesses. To help you find the best service we've gathered up all the important data so enjoy the read and hopefully when you're done you'll be better prepared to pick the best service for your needs!

The first thing you need to understand about blogs is that there are two main types: hosted and self-install. Some of the blogs offer both versions, but basically what this means is with hosted you will simply join a service somewhere and the blog software is ready to go. The second type, self-install is a bit more tricky for the less tech savvy user. You'll need to find a hosting service and then install the software yourself. Either way the real question here is which blog service is going to best fit your needs so let's have a quick overview of the main blogging software options.

Blogger

Cost: Free

Blogger is a free, hosted service. It is one of the older services and has a lot of users. Getting setup with blogger is pretty fast (about 10 minutes from start to blogging) and the system is pretty simple to use. The real issue with blogger is that its simplicity is also its limit. You won't find many professional bloggers using it though as you are more limited in some aspects such as performance and customization.

Blogware

Cost: ~$8 - $15 a month (varies by reseller)

Blogware differs from most blog services primarily in how you purchase it. You will need to purchase it through a reseller so you'll find that the prices and packages vary from reseller to reseller. Again with Blogware you'll have trouble if you want to make major customization changes to the looks of your blog, but there are a good number of options that let you tinker with the setup without editing the templates themselves.

Expression Engine

Cost: $149 (non-commercial) - $199 (commercial)

Expression Engine is actually more than just a blogging software. It would be better categorized as a content management system. Unlike some services it also includes things such as image galleries, mailing lists, and other useful tools. Again all this power comes at a cost and that cost is ease of use. You'll be able to do most anything you want but how to get it done will always be the big question.

Movable Type

Cost: Somewhere likely between $69.95 and $199.95

Very powerful, but difficult to both setup and use. One of the strengths of Movable type is that you can set it up to not appear like a blog at all. The feature set is large and you can do most anything you want but each time you update your template you'll have to rebuild your blog. If you really want to do some interesting customization this may be the blog service for you, but the faint of heart need not apply due to the technical skills required to accomplish the changes.

Typepad

Cost: $4.95 - $14.95 a month (depending on what service you choose)

With Typepad you have three options: Basic, Plus, and Pro. Each option gives you a distinct set of options and naturally the more you pay the better your options will be. Typepad is another very popular service and works well with journalistic bloggers who aren't much interested in messing with the sites templates. Once again customization is possible but difficult so most users of Typepad simply stick more or less to the defaults and do not worry much about the looks of the blog.

WordPress

Cost: Free

WordPress is both free and poweful. Many professionals use WordPress both due to its many customizable features as well as its ability to handle large traffic loads. Wordpress also supports third-party plugins which offer you many features that other services cannot provide. With WordPress you can both use their free service or add the blogging software to your own host. Some hosts also offer it as an easy one-click install feature.


Ed Grier is a writer for Best of the Web Hosts http://www.bestofthewebhosts.com - news, reviews, and more for webmasters and bloggers.