14 Blog Desktop Editors - Freeware Reviews

Until recently, I was using Web-Based Editor to make post on my Blogs. But, as my activities became more frequent, and overall amount of the Projects increased, I started to look for the suitable desktop solution. It is easier to compile and format the post in convenience on your Hard Drive, and as it ready, just publish it. Appeared, that there is a descent choice of the free products, available on the market, to complete the task. I am still looking for the one that I will permanently use, but almost every product I tried, is more convenient that the Web-Based editing solution.

For your convenience, I have compiled a list of the 14 Blog Desktop Editors on RateItAll. As usual, only the free programs were considered. Also, I did not include the scripts, that require installation on the server.

Please, access the link:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24825-blog-publishing-freeware.aspx

Lifehacker conducted a poll among bloggers to define the desktop blogging software used, and found out that almost 61% of the respondents still use online editor.

What about you?

Establishing personal branding and marketing through BLOGHOLOGY

What is Bloghology?
We can define an anthology asa collection of poems, stories, songs, articles, or other literary passages chosen by a compiler. Similar to an anthology, a new bloghology project is covering bloggers profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers.

What is the logic behind Bloghology?
Not all bloggers are good at personal branding and marketing. Especially the small bloggers are subject of a lot of challenges at the first stages of their blogs operation. Many of them stop blogging, because it seems to them at the time almost impossible to overcome the multiple obstacleson the road to success.

Bloghology is a joint campaign by two well-known sites: Peopleized.com and Search For Bloggingand will help bloggers on marketing and personal branding completely for free.

More information about the project you can get from the featured article:
http://www.searchforblogging.com/index.php/2007/12/12/2007-bloghology-by-search-for-blogging-peopleizedcom/

How to increase blog traffic (Closing Post)

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

Article 11

After extended exploration of the topic for 10 publications, I decided to close it. For me, if I feel tired from the task, I was enjoying before, it is time to make a short break. That is why; please accept this post as unofficial closing for the series of articles on the topic “How to increase blog traffic without financial investments”. It does not mean that I am going to get away from the topic for long, as it has the priority importance in the Blogging monetizing business. I have several ideas to implement soon enhancing the topic review.

Other Promotion Techniques – Brief Overview
I will just list several items that were not reviewed in the series for different reasons. But, since other authors mention them in their reviews, I might just overlook their marketing potential. Among them:
Posting on UseNet. Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. Dropping the seeds of the announcement for your Blog might give a boost to the site exposure.

Applying for Web Site Awards. Getting Best Blog Award in the featured category is a good way to show on the site, how good your Blog is, and also expose your site in the new niche. There are multiple online sites giving away the awards, you can easily find them through the search. I will mention just three of the top related sites:
Bloggers Choice Awards: http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/
The Weblog Awards: http://weblogawards.org/
Webbie Awards: http://www.webbyawards.com/

Submitting Blog to Design Galleries. The biggest list of the Design Galleries I could find online has been offered by Web Design Blog (99 sites in the body of the post, and more in the comments).
Link: http://webdesigngalleries.wordpress.com/2007/05/05/a-complete-list-of-web-design-galleries/

Interview Well-known Person. Arrange interview with someone well known in your industry, your marketing niche, or your local community. This interview will bring acknowledgement of your abilities to bring the newsworthy original material and will generate additional traffic to your Blog through the link from the interviewed person Blogs or Websites, since people tend to link back to their interviews.

Offer Contests. Organized contests will improve your reputation in the Bloggers community and will enhance your readers’ participation in your Blog activities. As you do that, utilize its marketing potential in full. For example, interview the contest winners and nominees, get their testimonials for your site, post related Press Releases, etc.

Participate in Meme Games. A meme is an idea transferred from person to person, from Blog to Blog like a virus. How does meme work? One Blogger is proposing idea like "Hey, let's post three facts about yourself that nobody knows yet!" He is forwarding it to his fellows Bloggers, tabbing them, and the game start its online brief, but bright, life with many people involved in the chain, until it dies down by itself or replaced by the new memes.

Additional Reading
I am enclosing some of the Web Sites and Blogs, which were used for the series of 11 articles, as references for additional reading:
http://www.motherreader.com/2007/10/kid-lit-blogging-session-ii-blog.html
http://www.blog-maniac.com/build-blog-traffic.htm
http://bloghit.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-to-explode-blog-traffic.html
http://www.rss-specifications.com/promote-your-blog.htm
http://blogpromotion.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggingplace.com/blog_promotion.htm
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/blog/index.php/2006/12/14/blog-promotion-tips/
http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/blog-promotion/99-ways-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/how_to_get_traf.html
http://www.v7n.com/forums/blog-promotion/49346-my-list-links-promote-blogs.html
http://impulseblogger.com/blog-promotion/
http://www.dewittsmedia.com/seo-blogs/blogs/13-blog-promotion-tips/
http://blog.sponsoredreviews.com/?p=47
http://topsecretblogger.com/bloggers-spykit-40-places-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/20-blog-promotion-guides-to-inform-your-strategy/
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/2006/05/08/where-to-submit-your-rss/
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/04/guide-to-blog-promotion.html
http://onlinepromotion.articlesarchive.net/10-ways-to-instantly-promote-your-blog-for-free.html
http://www.freeblogpromotion.com/articles/article-2.html
http://briansfreewebpromotion.blogspot.com/2007/09/promote-your-blog-free.html
http://youlkisblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/promotion-of-blogs-by-blogging-forums.html
http://www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com/index.php/20070517-101-free-ways-to-increase-your-blog-traffic/
http://synerjy.blogspot.com/2007/03/best-blog-promotion-techniques.html
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/blog_tips/
http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/blogs/index.html

I want to thank all the readers that provided their feedback to the publications. Good luck to everyone. Internet is huge. There is place for everybody to get the share of success and profits!

Forums Participation

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

Article 9

Participation in Forums and Message boards is another marketing approach to increase exposure to your blog. Many message boards and forums have a separate section of the discussion, collecting topics related to the blogs and blogging. But, even participation in non-related discussions on forums and message boards with leaving your blog link as your signature might bring you new customers. If I see a post on the message board, that is catching my attention by an interesting approach, I might want to learn more about the author and his virtual space. If the topic of the conversation is related to the blog theme, it is even better. User can discuss it, referring to his blog in a natural way as a source of additional information. People do not feel this conversation to be a part of the self-promotion campaign.

Also, it was noticed that the Search Engine are quite favorable to the forums content, so you might see the quality content, you posted on the forum discussion, at one of the first pages of the related keyword searches at the major Search Engines. Definitely, your blog address reference has a chance to catch public attention and increase your page ranking.

There are few good Forums, dedicated to blogging. If you are not only looking to promote your blog, but are also open for any new ideas and interactive communication with other fellows bloggers, the Blogging Forums will give you valuable assistance. It is useful for the Bloggers of all proficiency levels, but it is especially rewarding for newbies, as there they can find assistance with blog design, set-up and promotion. Based on the area of particular interests, user might focus on a certain area of the blogging forums, for example: blog promotion tips, template related issues, how to earn money from blog, Review my blog, RSS related, link exchange, Blog Add-Ons etc.

As usual, I am using RateItAll to prepare the Web List of the best online Forums, that are specializing on the Blog and Blogging related topics:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24458-forums-for-bloggers.aspx

Additional Reading:

http://toplisting.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-5-blogger-forums.html
http://newestonthenet.com/10-forums-to-make-you-a-better-blogger/
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/blogger-forums-as-promotion/

Writing and Submitting Articles

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

Article 8

You blog promotion through your articles published at other blog sites or article directories is a great way to develop exposure to new readers. It allows you to express yourself on unusual for you promotion channels and to bring in new readers who would not have come to your official blog otherwise.

For the starter, you can base your article on your own blog posts, tweak them a little bit, add eye-catching caption and graphics, and you have your article ready. Or you can write the first article about your blog, its purpose, its milestones, and about yourself as a blog creator. When article is ready, it could be submitted to the bloggers’ communities, article directories, direct publishers, and other blogs. Each of these opportunities can present each own benefits and should be closely evaluated while designing the marketing strategy for your blog promotion.

We will highlight the articles submission to the free articles directories, representing the most popular source for the hosting of article publication. They offer multiple benefits by spreading a word about you and your points, and gaining back links to your blog from outside location. Also, if your article is of high quality, other webmasters might pick it up and run on their sites. As all article directories site require the publishers to retain the original links, planted inside the article, this can create the back links to your blog multiplication from each posted article.
Rated list of the top 40 free Articles Directories is posted on RateItAll. Feel free to raise your voice, rating the listed items and adding new:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24434-free-articles-directories.aspx

For those, who prefer the automatic way for articles submission, there are multiple free software titles that can do that with minimum user assistance. As in all cases of the automatic submission, the effectiveness of the process is quite questionable. I personally did not test any of these programs, so I will just give you couple of links for software downloads on your own. Please, drop some comments on your impression from the automatic software performance.

Artemis Lite: http://www.artemislite.com/
Free Article Software: http://www.freearticlesoftware.com/
Article Submitter: http://articlesubmitter.imwishlist.com/
Article Manager: http://www.part-time-work-at-home-opportunities.com/downloads/

Additional Reading:
http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/2003/12/blog-promotion-writing-articles.html
http://danemorgan.com/article-marketing-blog-promotion/19/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Free-Article-Submission-Software-For-Free-Traffic&id=597771
http://www.imnewswatch.com/archives/2007/02/free_article_su.html?visitFrom=1

Free Press Releases Distribution

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

(part 7)

"Press releases are no longer documents seen by just isolated editors and reporters. Anybody using press releases these days puts them online," noted Tracey Falbe in her book "Creating Publicity: Free Online Press Release Distribution". The book announces press release as a valuable component of each and every marketing campaign. So, we have obligation to review this method of the blog exposure increase as well.

Writing a press release, announcing the blog accomplishments to the media might be very helpful to spread a word about your site. Take time to prepare sharp and factual announcement that will briefly deliver the main information and will encourage the PR readers to visit your site to get details and just see, what else you got there. Spend additional time to proof read your posting, as PR announcement should look very professional to be posted and appreciated by readers.

Some of the PR sites are enjoying pretty high traffic. They are closely monitored by journalists, publishers, bloggers, looking for the killer content for their sites, and industry watchers. And, may be, you will be lucky enough to get a publication about you, your site, and your business on the highly-recognized media, where you never expected to see yourself. This doesn’t mean that you can prepare a press release that reminds a simple self-advertisement for your web site, blog, or business. The information in the press release has to be indeed newsworthy and objective.

The content of the press releases is also gets picked up by search engines, which makes your posts to be even more available to readers, and increases the chances for your site to be seen. And, finally, a side-benefit of the PR posting is increasing links popularity of your own site due to the linking from the PR site, which helps with search engine ranking. Link popularity is currently one of the top determining factors of where your website will rank on Major Search Engines listings.

There are a number PR sites that allow for press release to be posted free of charge. Definitely, the list of publishing options is limited for free members, but, since it is free, there is no point for complains. I have generated the list of such sites at RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24425-press-releases--free-online-services.aspx

Additional Reading:
http://www.ineedcopy.com/articlepressreleases.html
http://www.articlecafe.net/Article/Why-Press-Releases-Work---Website-Marketing/41510
http://mashable.com/2007/10/20/press-releases/
http://seo.magnetiks.com/2007/08/21/why-write-a-press-release/http://ezinearticles.com/?Actual-Facts---Reason-Why-Press-Releases-Work&id=774035

Links Exchange Overview (Text Links and Banners)

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

Article 6

Text Links Exchange
In this chapter 6 we will discuss the Links Exchange. In a way, it can be considered as a brief reviews exchange version, fast to implement, and quite flexible. Many Blog owners consider this method of the Blog promotion as one of their favorite. This strategy involves contacting other Blog owners for a possible link exchange partnership. It is preferable to locate Blogs that are somehow related to yours, contact the webmaster, and offer him links swapping. The Link Exchange supposes to work at the following directions:
1. Increasing the link popularity.
2. Improving search engine positioning.
3. Generating free traffic.
4. Enhancing the Blog content.

With all the positive signs Links Exchange brings to the Blog owner, there are some online warnings on using and over-using the Links Exchange for the Blog traffic increase. I want to bring you the full citation of David Jackson on the Link Sharing methodology, borrowed from the Trader Mike’ Blog
(http://tradermike.net/2005/08/link_exchanges/):
It’s well known that if you own a web site the number of other sites that link to your site is crucial, as the number and quality of inbound links determine your ranking in the results of the leading search engines. This has led to the proliferation of “link sharing”, i.e. “you link to me and I’ll link to you” deals.
The problem with link sharing, however, is that it adulterates one of the most useful aspects of the Web: carefully chosen links to contextually relevant topics. Link-sharers not only allow the inclusion of any and every link, but often allow the authors of the linked-to sites to choose and describe the links themselves. If linking is an integral part of Web content and editorial value, then link-sharing debases that content and value.

To conclude the topic, I want to call for careful use of any of the traffic increasing techniques with keeping in mind that nothing you do should jeopardize the Blog’s content quality, readability, and interface comprehension. Content is a King, everything else is just dress or dressing…

Banners Exchange
I personally actively dislike this type of the advertising and, consequently, this method of the Blog traffic increase. The reasons for this denial are as follows:
• I consider this method of advertising as outdated, with low efficiency outcomes.
• Bold, eye-catching banners call the feelings that are completely opposite from those, that are supposed to be: you want to avoid the banner and everything that is related to it.
• You give away a significant space of your site to advertise something you are not aware of. It can be a tasteless graphic, or content that is unfitting to your site. It is true that somebody else is hosting your banner, but it does not make the situation better for your Blog.

With all that, I understand that the great popularity of this kind of blog marketing should have the valid justification. If services find their consumers, there are definite advantages for the Bloggers in using them. Yes, using banner exchange networks is different from simple link swapping in terms of potential visitors reached. If you become member of one or several large banner exchanges communities, you have the potential for your ads to be shown on hundreds, or even thousands of other sites that you would not reach in any other ways. Also, banner rotation and sophisticated targeting might increase the potential attractiveness of this method of advertising to the Bloggers. There are many communities that will be happy to have you as a member. Just count few, for your convenience:

ExchangeBanners.org: http://www.exchangebanners.org/index.php

Great Banner: http://www.greatbanner.com/

BannerXchange: http://www.bannersxchange.com/

TradeBanners: http://www.tradebannerads.com/

This time, I have not generated the list at RateItAll, but to satisfy the readers looking for a bigger choice of the communities, I have borrowed the list, generated by Zdenek Rauner, at his Prospector site:

http://www.prospector.cz/Free-web-site-promotion/Banner-exchanges/

To be continued…

Reviews Exchange

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

Article 5

In the fifth part of the research, we will continue investigating the most promising ways to increase traffic flow to the Blog. In this chapter we will review the reviews exchange approaches.

Sponsored Reviews
Recently, this method of the Blogs promotion gained an enormous popularity. As Blogs eventually became the powerful and the wide-spread way of the content delivery to the readers, some Blog owners started to invest on ordering the sponsored reviews from other Bloggers to be posted on their sites on the promoter’s Blog. Usually, it means that for your money you get a nice attractive review on your site and its content that supposed to bring additional traffic to the site, and consequently additional income source that should justify the monetary investment. It also became an additional income source for the fellows’ bloggers, while they can find the “orders” on multiple “paid reviews” sites. This method of the blog promotion, while being quite effective and popular, does not fit well to the main idea of this article to include just free methods of the blog exposure. There are also warning voices claiming that sponsored reviews, while not violation the business laws, are “contaminating” the free and non-biased spirit of the information exchange in the bloggers’ communities. With all respect to the revealed concern, I personally consider this method of advertising to be completely acceptable, as far as the posted review or article is marked with clearly-visible and well-articulated disclaimer that the post is a part of the “sponsored” or the “paid-per-review” advertising campaign. Let the reader decide than, what credibility to be granted to the sponsored post.

List of the several Web Sites where you can order sponsored reviews, was posted at RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24403-money-for-sponsored-blogging.aspx

Reviews Exchange Communities
I think the review exchange through the specializing communities might give a really good exposure boost to the freshly created blogs with good content. Unfortunately, there are not many sites, I could find in this category, for this presentation. The brief listing is hosted on RateItAll as well:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24370-reviews-exchange--free-online-services.aspx

The biggest advantage of this promotional approach: your visitor are not just clicking on your page and passing it through (like traffic exchange), but are actually reading the content, as they need to write something in the review later about your blog. Some of readers use the shameless tricks, posting the generic common phrases to describe any blog, they have reviewed. But, blog owner might be rewarded by really thoughtful comments and suggestions and by gaining devoted return readers, deciding your content is valuable enough to be bookmarked. In most cases, you can also choose the topic for your reviews, so you can also gain interesting new insights in the area of your interests. Per my practical observations, this is one of the methods of the site promotion, you should seriously consider in your marketing campaign.

Reviews Exchange with other Bloggers
This approach differs from the described above, as you exchange the reviews with other blogs. Every beginner blogger will benefit the reviews exchange with the better know blog, can be characterized by bigger traffic flow and higher rating. In exchange, the “Big Brother” is getting an additional exposure by reviewing many new and less “famous” blogs and journals. The certain disadvantage of reviews exchange with other blogs is a necessity to fit the review posting with the general direction of your own blog, otherwise this post will be visibly out of the main posting stream. Keep in mind, that you are responsible to the blog, you are exchanging reviews with, but you are also responsible to your readers that are accustomed to your style, topics presentation, else. Every perceived false will not serve good neither your blog, nor the blog you are reviewing. Therefore, I would recommend seriously taking in account not just the potential advantages of your blog review being posted somewhere else, but also your ability to incorporate the new review in your blog canvass.

Traffic Exchange for Blog Promotion

How to increase blog traffic without financial investments

Article 4

In the forth part of the research, we will continue investigating the most promising ways to increase traffic flow to the Blog. Earlier, we already discussed several methods of the site promotion, related to the Blog submission to the various search engines and directories. In this chapter we will review the traffic exchange approaches.

Part 4: Traffic Exchange

Manual Traffic Exchange
Manual Blog Traffic Exchange communities operate on a basis of a reciprocal viewing ratio: every member, by visiting other members’ Blogs in the network, is earning credits that could be exchanged for visits by other community members to his own Blog. Some traffic exchange networks also encourage members to buy additional credits, which will be translated to the non-reciprocal visitors’ traffic. Among the main benefits of using traffic exchange as a method of the blog promotion is opportunity of getting extra traffic from the fellows-bloggers that you would never get in any other way. The communities’ members are the blogging fans themselves, so you get the traffic from the people that might be interesting in what you can offer. However, I would not personally consider this traffic as high quality traffic. The reason of this downgrading is based on the fact that most participants review the sites for simple credit making without an actual interest in the Blogs they are viewing through, frequently not even noticing, what is happening on the screen. Another disadvantage of the manual traffic exchange – it is very time-consuming. Indeed, you click and click, and at the end you get several visitors to your site that even might not note what it is about. And, finally, this area comes too close to the borders of the permitted by AdSense traffic generation guidelines. Just wanted to cite to you a clarification on the topic from the AdSense official Blog:
“As many of you already know, our program policies strictly prohibit any means of artificially generating ad impressions or clicks, including third-party services such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, auto-surf, and click-exchange programs. These programs offer incentives for users to view web pages or click on ads, resulting in activity that is harmful to our advertisers. We occasionally receive questions from publishers interested in using traffic exchanges to bring traffic to their site. While these services may help advertise your site, we don't recommend using them, as they may also result in similar invalid activity”.

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-on-traffic-exchange-programs.html

As you see, there is no prohibition to use traffic exchange services, it is just not recommended. So, it is your choice, if you want to use the traffic exchange program in your marketing campaign. In case you are not linked to AdSense income share program any, consequently, to any related obligations, you can simply disregard all the related warnings. The list of the most recommended Traffic Exchange services is provided in the Web List, hosted by RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24372-manual-traffic-exchange-for-blogs--free-online-services.aspx

Note that this list covers only the Web Sites that, in their service coverage, are dedicated exclusively to the bloggers. There are even more general traffic exchange services, which accept any type of the membership Web Sites in the community. I have not prepared the Web List of services in this category, but you can easily get multiple hits if you search on Google “manual traffic exchange”.

Automatic Traffic Exchange
An Automatic Traffic Exchange approach has one big advantage: your participation is almost not required. You sign for one, or for multiple accounts; leave your computer overnight, and the “smart” auto-trafficking program will guide your PC through Internet, earning you money, credit for your own site exposure, or both. These programs, however, clearly violate the AdSense instructions, and there is a good chance that you will be busted one day, if you use the scheme. Definitely, if you are working on your Blog or Web Site with no AdSense participation, you are clean from the legal viewpoints. Usually, the automatic traffic exchange program is activated by the participants overnight, while the account owner is away from the computer. So, even thou your traffic statistics will show significant increase, no one from your “visitors” will actually see your site. The generated traffic is purely artificial, and can increase site exposure earnings per impressions, if it would be legal. As a bottom line, I would not personally recommend using the Automatic Traffic Exchange schemes, as it is illegal (for AdSense or others similar advertising brokers) and might cause your account suspension. You can loose more than you can gain.

To be continued…

Submission to the Search Engines and Directories

How to increase traffic to your Blog without financial invetments
Article 3

In the first two articles we discussed the tips and recommendations, related to the content preparation and presentation on your blog, as the basis for the successful site exposure. If the content is not very good, or has not been properly presented, there is no point investing in the advanced marketing steps. Even if you can attract the one-time readers, they will never be converted to your fans and returning visitors. "Content is a king", but if you will not be able to spread a world about it around, nobody knows that you have a "treasure".

In the third part of this research (I just approached to it as one of my college papers), we will review the marketing promotional techniques, related to the blog submission to the Search Engines and Directories, notifying the potential readers on your virtual presence and on the following blog updates per your fresh posts. Coming to the point of this part preparation, I got stuck. The amount of the information about the related services on the Web is enormous, and the new players are coming to the market on a daily basis. It is a good sign, confirming that this area of interests is really “hot”, and we are at the right place at the right time. So, let's use the free Internet opportunities for our own profits.

To make the article more flexible and let the readers leave their valuable inputs on the listed services, I have posted most of the services that will be mentioned below as Web Lists at RateItAll Rating Community(http://www.rateitall.com/). This way, the listings might be updated without modifying this post. I will be also grateful, if you raise your voice to vote for your favorite services on the presented Web Lists.

Submission to the General Search Engines

First of all, let’s treat our blog as a regular Web Page. If so, we can simply submit it to the major search engines. It is obvious, that the high percentage of the traffic, coming to the blogs, is originated from Search Engines. If your blog is parked in one of the communities, the host will submit your pages to the Search Engines for you. However, you hardly can control and boost the process of submission. If you want to take this matter in your own hands, you can independently submit your blog to the search engines. As my promotion approach does not suggest any payable solutions, I am offering you to choose one of the free automatic submission Web Sites, which will do the job for you in no time. The quality of the promotion outcomes is questionable, but due to a small amount of time spent, you have nothing to loose. There is a small list of the available Web Sites, I have prepared for your convenience at RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24359-automatic-web-site-submission-to-search-engines--free-online-services.aspx

Yes, the easy and fast submission option, described above, exists, but I would not recommend using it for the most valuable Search Engines, where you expect most of the traffic from. You can get much better results, if you submit your blog manually, as some crawler based engines do not like getting the submission from the automatic sources. Besides, most of the Web traffic currently is coming from the few leading engines, anyway. Just spend little bit more time to ensure your submission efforts will get you the best possible results. I suggest performing your blog submission to the following top engines and directories manually:

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit - Yahoo!

http://www.google.com/addurl/ - Google, AOL, NetScape, iWon.

http://dmoz.org/add.html - Open Directory.

Submission to the Blog Directories

There are so many different search engines and directories, created exclusively for blogs. I am not even thinking to cover them all. If you wish to use automatic blog and RSS submission software to the multiple directories, consider buying Dummy Software's Blog and RSS Submit Software http://www.dummysoftware.com/. The software is a shareware, but it can be tested for free on limited amount of the sites for submission. Establishing your presence in Blog directories will increase your link popularity, amplify the Blog direct traffic, and improve search engine rankings. I have prepared the appropriate list of the best Blog directories on RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24360-submission-to-blog-directories--free-online-services.aspx

Submission to the RSS Search Engines

Fast increasing number of the content sources caused appearing new distribution channels to the public. RSS is one of them, as more and more advanced Internet users utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed on the latest news and posted information. As there are increasing amount of the RSS consumers, the Blog owner should invest some additional time on giving them ability to access the blog posts through RSS Search Engines. If until now, online content was optimized solely for SEO (search engine optimization), a growing popularity of RSS requires additional site optimization for RSS readers. Usually, the submission process for the RSS search engines is fast and easy. On most sites it is limited by posting the RSS feeder URL from your Blog without registration or filling much information on their sites. The list of selected RSS search engines is posted on RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24374-submission-to-rss-search-engines--free-online-services.aspx

Submission to the Social Bookmarking Sites

The original and the main purpose of the social bookmarking sites is ability to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages, similarly to saving bookmarks in your browser. The difference is that you can access the social bookmarking sites from any computer, and easily share them with your friends and colleagues. In addition, these sites are actively used for blog promotion, similarly to the blog directories, increasing the potential value for the blog owners. All the sites require membership to access their services. The list of the best selected social bookmarking services is posted on RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24375-social-bookmarking-sites--free-online-services.aspx

You might not need to subscribe to all the services currently available currently, choosing only those that will provide you set of features you like. However, if you want to sign for multiple sites simultaneously, Tagenie (http://www.tagenie.com/) will save you some time for registration and login. This service is not a social bookmarking site, but it gives the opportunity to register for about 40 bookmarking services using the single form on the same page, including some of the most popular sites from the Web List.

Pinging Blogs

Pinging services are specializing on updating the various search engines and social bookmarking sites on the Blog recent updates. Blog owners are interested in getting the widest possible publicity to the newly posted data as fast as possible. Therefore, the bulk pinging services will be handy to fulfill this task. The list of the best multi-ping services, I could find, is posted, as usual, on RateItAll:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24378-blog-pinging--free-online-services.aspx

To be continued…

6 Advices on the Blog Posting Techniques

How to increase traffic to your Blog without financial invetments
Article 2

1. Content Posting.
* Post your content during weekdays, since you can get a wider audience.
* Post your content on weekends, as there are fewer posts, and your post can get more attention from the readers.
* Post at different hours of a day. The post is the most active as it is brand new. At the time it is fresh, it has the biggest exposure opportunities in your community. Later, the newer posts will push your publication lower and lower, until it disappears completely from the recent posts listing. Posting at the different schedules will help you reaching the customers from different time zones and with various computer-using routines.

2. Tagging your posts. Tag your content accurately and smartly, so your visitors can find you post by focusing on their particular area of interest. Do not try using the tags or keywords, just because they are popular and will attract the most expensive AdSense advertising. If the tags do not match your content, your visitors will never come back.

3. Linking to other Blogs. There are several valid reasons to make a link in your post to other blogs or publications. Giving legitimate references to the articles and posts, which you used for your blog entry, or providing more information on the other sources related to the topic of discussion, will not divert your visitors away out of your page. Instead, it will reach the following potentially positive outcomes:
* You help your visitors to get the full picture on the topic of interests, and they will appreciate your openness and extra-efforts to assist them.
* You build the audience that will trust your judgment, as you are not just a source of the posted information, but also an expert in the deeper informational research on the topic.
* You save yourselves from the legal consequences, if you are accused in plagiarism. As far, as you point out on the text author, you are free from the possible accusations and banning from your host for unethical behavior. Just, be sure to check your hosting site, if the non-original content is allowed, when you intend to copy the borrowed article, or any part of it, “as is”.
* The authors of the posts, you give references to, might notice your links, and take a look on your posts. It is especially useful, when you refer to the blog, which is much more established, than yours.
* And finally, when you notify the author on linking to his posts, it can be considered as a polite way of hinting on the possible link exchange. Just remember, that it is not your main target at the moment. Do not be aggressive on the link exchange requirements, otherwise instead of getting the good reputation, you are striving for, you will end up with a bad one.

4. Leaving Comments and Participating in Discussions. Improve your rating by giving quality comments on other people’s blogs. Your point of view and your thoughtful remarks might also drive visitors to your personal blog. There is nothing wrong to post link to your blog in the comment, if it is relevant to the comment topic. Posting irrelevant link or non-informative comment will bring you more harm than good, as readers will consider your comment as spam. Anyway, if you have a good post, the link in your signature can help; even in the case it does not match the topic of discussion. Readers, attracted by your nice comment, might want to explore your other posts as well. Give them the opportunity.

5. Replying to the Comments on your Posts. Always make sure to reply to the comments and questions, your readers are leaving on your posts. If they spent their valuable time to write the note, you should respect that and show your gratitude by replying, or giving them the advice they are asking for. It also makes the post more interactive and drives more visitors.

6. Inspect the reading statistics from your current posts, and learn which posts were the most successful. Investigate in depth your own content and try to understand, what exactly in these particular posts could contribute to the booming exposure. It might not be just content, but also formatting, timing, hosting community influence, else. As you figured out what all your popular posts have in common, try reproducing the success in the future publications.

Content Preparation for High Traffic Blog

How to increase traffic to your Blog without financial invetments

Article 1

You created your first blog, and made several well-written posts on the important topic. You also linked your blogging account to the AdSense, and you are looking for visitors. But, visitors are not coming. You see that clearly on the post statistics and AdSense statistics. If you established your Web presence in the big communities, you can just wait for the community members to find your post, or for your hosting site to submit your post to the main search engines according to the topic of relevance. But, you want to see results immediately. I want the immediate improvement of my traffic statistics as well. So, I went online, and made the thorough search for the recommendations from the professionals and fellows bloggers.
The following article is an overview result from the multiple sources on the topic: “How to increase blog traffic without financial investments.” The list of the links that were used for the article preparation, will be enclosed in the final part of the topic, for your convenience. I want to thank all the authors who contributed to the topic’s review.

1. Provide quality content. It is hard to explain in simple words, how the quality content can be separated from the non-quality content. But, if you read an article on topic of your interests and you see say to yourself: “That’s it. I knew that, but the author put the staff on the blog quite nicely”- this is a quality content. Share your expertise generously with other people, so the readers recognize it and depend on you and your opinion.
2. Provide original content. There are many sites with free content for your blog, and there is nothing wrong to use once a while an article that fit to topic of your discussion (definitely, if you provide the information about author, and your blogging host supports non-original content posting). But, the most readable blogs are not those that collect articles from other primary sources, no matter how good the posts are.
3. Personal Voice. Through your posts readers should see an author – you. As blogs are more like personal journals, they need to have a personal touch of the creator, giving the visitors feeling that you personally like they came, you write for them, to make their life easier and more fun. This personal touch might be provided through the humorous comments, examples from your experience, etc.
4. Provide an interesting and expert content. Everybody has the topic(s) where she or he is an expert. Choose the topic for your posts that it is interesting for you. Do not choose the topic, before they seems to be the most profitable. If you do not have fun, writing your posts, the visitors will not have fun, reading them. Be constantly aware on all new trends on your topic of interest and became an expert in this area.
5. Look on your posts from your visitor’s perspectives. Try to review your post as the post of some stranger you stumbled online. Is this post is keeping your attention till the end, or you get bored right away? Try to be objective. If this post would be written by somebody else, would you like it?
6. Controversial Content. If that is applicable to the topic of your discussion, prepare the posts with controversial content, that might evoke the discussion and polemics, which will increase the blog exposure and will eventually drive more traffic. One of the methods of increasing user’s participation is posting provocative questions and touch “hot topics”. These posts should be related to the topic of your discussion and you should use them carefully, as your blog stylishness and integrity are more important for your long-time success.
7. News and long-lasting content. Try to create articles with the long-lasting content to ensure your posts readability next year, next 10 years… Definitely, it is from not easy to impossible for the topics related to the Internet, technology, or other topics with enormous speed of development. If your content will loose actuality fast, be first to deliver the news, taking the traffic the other way.
8. Track back links to your other posts. While writing new post, try to include the relevant links from your older posts, promoting them the most natural way. These intra-links should not be accepted as shameless promotion, but should be integral to the post.
9. Writing Style and Design. You should develop your own, easy-identifiable style as a writer. But, anyway, reader will always appreciate if you make his comprehension easier by using the proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalizing letters as needed, proofreading you posts, and using the blog design and Themes and will help your reader to focus on the post, and avoid distraction by the reading obstacles. By investing your time in these simple actions, you will actually show the respect to your reader.
10. Regular Updates. Update your blogs regularly, let your fans to be addicted to the new post they can enjoy on the regular basis. The rule is “the more regular you blog, the more traffic you will get”. It is increasing the overall knowledge base, you are presenting to the public, combined with keeping the most devoted your readers not to be disappointed by your extended absence.
11. Pictures and Videos. Use pictures and videos naturally incorporated in your posts. They give more flavors to your articles, make them more readable, and attract the public attention.
12. Blog Title and Description. Do not think that it is not important! It definitely is! Gets a cool relevant, straight-forward, and keywords-rich title that makes people check your site for the first time. And the description should match the title, giving the brief presentation on your topic, approach, and character of presentation. This will also assist you in getting better indexing results in the search engines.
13. Most Popular Posts. You have the posts that you like most, and your readers like most. Why not putting them the permanent links to them on the sidebars, or add the few “killing” posts in your signature, when you are finalizing your regular posts? Your best weapon should be utilized as much as possible.
14. Length of the Posts. It is recommended to keep the overall posts and paragraphs inside the post short. It is better to offer your visitors to come daily, checking your new pieces of the information, than to get them tired reading one long article. It does not mean that you should always right the short posts. If the long article can be divided into the self-sufficient components, it is better to split it and arrange separate parts submission.

I am going to use the last recommendation for myself, and leave other aspects of the blog traffic increase to the following posts. Happy Blogging!

Pinging the Blog with Free Online Services

After claiming my Blog at Technorati (see previous post), I decided to digg on the Internet to check what else can author do to promote the Blog fast and easy. I found another two free services that will help to inform different Search Engines that the blog was updated.
Links for Blog pinging:
http://pingomatic.com/
http://www.pingoat.com/

Blog Promotion with Technorati

Technorati Profile

Claiming the blog to Techonorati will help a blogger to maximize the blog's exposure to those, looking for information provided. The blog visibility might be significantly improved if author posts the Blog to the proper category of the Technorati's Blog Finder.
Hey, you need visitors, and visitors are looking for you! Help them find your artciles. You have a chance to improve the attendance even more, if your Blog will be published on Technorati's Home Page.