Engage your readers. Empathize with them. They should feel your mood and gain your understanding through your words.

Test your readership. Share. Make it a two-way street. This is particularly important if you’re marketing. And remember – understand your traffic and reader-base. Let me say that again. Understand your traffic and reader-base. If you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing.

The community loves free.  People love free, at one of their most base levels.  You give a lot away, you sell at the “top slice”.  It’s another example of the “freemium” model working.

Take a look around you as you browse the web.  As you walk down the street.  As you watch TV.  As you read a magazine.  Are you “drawn” by free?  Have you ended up somewhere you might otherwise not have been, surfing down the web “rabbit warren”, because of “free”?  Or walked into that random store because of free? Of course you have.

We’re going to do some pieces on the power of free.  Because it is powerful.  And it’s win-win-win.

Using services like Jott to blog opens up new dimensions.  When you call your Jott phone number, the service translates your spoken words into written text.  You can even set your own blog as an “addressee”.  C’mon, you gotta try that.

Who has blogged in the oddest places using the weirdest kit?

But, you know, most people still don’t understand keywords as well as they should, particularly when it comes to creating a new niche site.

Below is a short, but very sweet, video about exactly how you plan and develop a niche market product using Wordtracker.

Disclaimer: Obviously this video was created by Wordtracker and accordingly is about their product, but it really is a gem for people quite new to this area….enjoy….

A blog is not for everyone or for every business, but there are few businesses that can’t benefit from a blog in some way and it may be exactly what you need.  It may be the detonator you and your business need to go stratospheric.

Many are also realizing the importance and power of using blogs in communication with customers and suppliers as well.  Blogs can be very effective marketing tools that can help business owners increase profit.  

Consider the following seven reasons why a blog could work for you:

• Blogs help to increase communication and cut down on time between messages.  Whenever communication is increased in the right way, it correlates to increased sales, and therefore profit. Blogs can actually be money makers.

• Blogs can still (believe it or not) be seen as somewhat cutting edge in mainstream business marketing.  Although they have been around forever (or so it seem to us in Web 2.0), they still seem new to many people in ‘big’ business.  Therefore, if you use a blog for marketing purposes, particularly to non-tech businesses, you make yourself seem up-to-date and actually a leader in new marketing methods. Leverage that.

• Having your own blog is like having your own personal media forum.  It is like owning your own newspaper, radio station, or television station.  This means you have a place to say whatever you want, whenever you want, and you do not have to worry about anyone censoring you or twisting your words for personal gain (provided of course that what you say and do is within the law).

• Blogs can serve as a springboard to promote your other marketing aids, and vice versa.  You can use your blog to help promote your website, and you should also include a link to your blog on business cards, emails, and other forms of communication.  A blog’s success depends on cross promotion to gain readership.

• Writing a blog will help to make you more educated in your field.  You will have to spend some time doing a little research to be able to write interesting blogs.  Showing what you know will help you to promote yourself as an expert and will increase reader/customer trust in you and your product.

• You should also use a blog to help establish an angle for your product.  You need to decide if you are going to promote yourself as a conservative family company or an edgy, less traditional operation.  You can choose to be serious, funny, or strictly educational.

• Realize, quickly, that blogs can often be picked up by other media forms.  This means additional press and free advertisement.  Blogs are quoted by other blogs, on websites, and even in print communication such as newspapers and magazines.  You can also move into the world of speaking if your blog lends itself to setting you up as an expert.

While it is certainly the case that blogging can be very fun, don’t forget to do your keyword research. Keywords are part of the fuel that powers your traffic.

Even though you can blog about whatever is on your mind as long as it relates to your niche topic, you do need to do some keyword research. This will not take much time once you get the hang of it — and doing so can definitely help you rank more highly in the search engines for each blog post you write!

You’ll want to do some preliminary keyword research before you set up the structure of your blog. This can help you with choosing a domain name and selecting a focus for your blog. Keep in mind that you have a few different options when it comes to your domain name.

Some people choose to purchase a keyword focused domain in hopes that it will help them rank more highly. Other people want their blog to be branded and will choose a unique name for their blog. The choice is truly yours, depending on whether you want the focus to be on SEO or branding.

You will also want to do some keyword research before writing your blog posts. For instance, if you’re going to blog about a certain product related to your niche, you can do some keyword research to determine which keyword related to that product is searched the most. Then, you can include the keyword in your title and have it sprinkled throughout your article. Make sure to include the keyword naturally and not just stuff it in!

You can also insert these keywords as tags with each post you publish. These tags can be picked up by the search engines to help establish relevancy and help you rank more highly for your desired terms.

Keyword research is also important if you’re going to be using a plug-in such as the All-in-One plugin or Platinum SEO plugin. These will automatically search engine optimize each post, and your entire blog, at setup for you. These plugins include places to enter your keywords, a title, and a description.

There are many different ways you can do this keyword research. There are free tools like the Google keyword research tool at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. This tool will give you an idea of how many people search for each related keyword globally and locally. Be sure to select “exact match” from the drop down menu to determine the true figures. There are also paid tools, such as Market Samurai and Micro Niche Finder, that can help you dig down and determine information such as competition levels and more.

Choosing the right keywords can mean the difference between hoping people are able to find your blog and your posts, and knowing that they definitely will because you rank so highly in the search engines. Take the time to do some keyword research before establishing your blog, and before you write each post, and you should start to see some great results!

Some people simply do not update on a regular basis and the readers lose interest. Other people stop posting altogether! Keep it in your mind that, particularly if you are running a blog as a real business, you need to have a regular schedule of posting so that your readers stay interested and your rankings stay strong in the search engines.

Note that the search engines love fresh content. They know that people are looking for the latest and greatest information. That means that if your blog is updated consistently, the search engine spiders will visit more often.

This can help to improve your search engine rankings. Not only that, but you will also have more content out on the web just waiting to be ranked and found by people in your niche. The more content you have, the more keywords your blog will tend to show up for in the search engines.

All of this can lead to improved rankings and more people finding you through the organic listings.

In addition to SEO, you should update your blog with fresh content for your readers. People love to visit blogs where they know they will always get new information from the bloggers they love best. It can be frustrating to visit a favorite blog, only to find that it has not been updated for quite some time. No matter how strongly your blog started off, the second you stop updating regularly you’ll probably find that your readership and earnings drop off.

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find time to blog every day. That’s why many people choose to schedule blog posts for future release. You don’t need a post for every single day, but you should attempt to have them at least a few times a way. That way, people will know when to expect the content and they know that it will always be there when they visit. There is nothing quite like knowing that you are fulfilling your reader’s needs by always having something new and interesting for them to read!

You also need to stay up-to-date with the latest information related to your niche so you stay inspired to write these posts. Read industry magazines, visit other top blogs in your niche, read the news, take stock of the latest products, and so on. Doing this will always give you good ideas of things to blog about and it will help your readers — your blog will be seen as highly relevant and up to date.

Take the importance of having fresh content into consideration.  Don’t underestimate it. Your blog will be much more successful as a result with both your readers and search engines.

If, like millions of you out there,  you absolutely love it when people present information and opinions through video. You can do the same thing by running your video blog… vlog.

There are some video blogs out there that are exclusively video. Every single blog post is a video with a short description of what is being shown. Many people like this format, but you do need to be careful that you do not alienate any visitors who prefer to read instead. It might be a better idea for you to intersperse written content with video content.

There are certain topics and niches that are more suited to video than others. For instance, if you’re doing a product review or demonstration, then you may want to use video to do so. This will help give your readers a clear view of the things you have to say.

You may also want to do some “talking head” videos. These are great because your readers will feel like they are sitting right across from you listening to what you have to say. It can help your readers connect with you. If you come across as likable, then your readership might increase as people will come back time and time again, and tell their friends and family members about you.

You’ll need a of couple tools before you get started video blogging. First and foremost, you will at least need a WebCam. Thankfully, these come pre-installed in many computers. These are great for making talking head videos where you want to speak directly to your audience.

If you want to do product demonstrations, then you might consider getting a video camera, such as one from Creative Vado or Flip Video, since they are so small and portable.

One of the great things about doing a video blog is that you can simply upload your content to YouTube. Then, you can use your own YouTube channel as a way to draw in even more visitors to your blog! It becomes a traffic generation method all on its own. Also, keep in mind that YouTube is the second-most used search engine in the world (second to Google itself). When people are able to find your video content (which is why you want to use keywords in titles and descriptions) through YouTube, the chances of them finding your blog are very good.

In addition to these video blogs being posted on YouTube, you can embed the code within your blog posts themselves. That way, the people who are regular readers of your blog will have the benefit of being able to watch the videos right there while they are also on YouTube drawing in even more viewers and readers to your blog.

Video blogging is a must since more and more people love learning through video. Creating videos allows you to display your personality and expand your reach online.

As bloggers, we all rely on Google to some extent.  Yes, all, if you think hard enough about it.

ClubBlogger is pleased to bring to you this article about Google’s spanking new “inflation measure”.  Brought to you via our partnership with Guardian:

The content previously published here has been withdrawn. We apologise for any inconvenience.

If you put a blog inside/alongside your existing website (see below) you can, relatively quickly and easily:

• extend the features on the site; and
• better interact with your audience (if you’re in business, your clients, customers, suppliers, you name it).

Other benefits include:

• SEO (search engine optimization). Because blogs are dynamic and frequently updated (or they should be!), search engines love them;
• feeding users back and forth between your main site and the blog, depending on the topics and issues; and
• coverage of issues and topics outside of the ‘core’ content of your site.  If there is synergy and overlap between the two, you start to generate the perfect storm.

If you already have a website:

You can take the existing HTML code of a site add to it a platform such as WordPress.  This way you end up with an installation of a well-used and well-supported blog platform within the site which you already own and run.  The really nice result is that you can add a range of features from WordPress plugins so you, and you users, can really get the benefit from the blogging experience.

From a technical perspective, you would usually create a new directory on your server (e.g., domainname.com/blog) which is pointed to by your blog (or which, perhaps I should say, points to your blog). Or, alternatively, you could just as easily and nearly create a subdomain (e.g., blog.domainname.com).

Do be aware that these “add the blog later” projects can be a challenge because of the coding, styling and formating of the existing website. However, you are where you are and work within the parameters you have.  How much you can achieve full integration will depend on your coding and graphical (for look and feel) skills.  If the site is simple and the blog is simple it really isn’t a tough job.

If you don’t already have a website:

In this situation, your blog can actually BE your website.  Yes, WordPress and similar platforms are so flexible nowadays that the whole user interaction is via a series of blog pages which make up all of the pages of the website.  “Site” and “blog” are becoming synonymous in many situations.

The underlying functionality of your website can actually be provided by the plugins and other back-end features of WordPress.  It’s an amazing tool.

In fact, starting from scratch is a great place to be.  You don’t need to worry about the sort of effort to achieve integration of an existing site and a new blog.

Above all, blogs should be:

• regularly updated and quick to updated;
• packed with relevant content; and
• sources of real value.