Happy Holidays!

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2008
12/24
CATEGORY
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Top 5 Free Blog Directories to Submit to

I have compiled a list of top 5 free blog directories you should submit your blog to. They are free and won’t cost you a dime but they will work wonders for your blog authority and traffic. I recommend you do this submission yourself as it will not take anything more than an hour.

1. Bloglines.com (PR 9): Bloglines is a free online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device.

2. Technorati.com (PR 8): Technorati was founded to help bloggers succeed by collecting, highlighting, and distributing the global online conversation. Founded as the first blog search engine, Technorati has expanded to a full service media company providing services to the blogs and social media sites and connecting them with advertisers who want to join the conversation, and whose online properties introduce blog content to millions of consumers.

3. BlogCatalog.com (PR 7): Blog Catalog is the premiere social blog directory on the internet. Whether you’re looking to promote your own blog, find blogs on various topics, or connect with other bloggers this site is for you.

4. BoingBoing.net (PR 7): We depend on the suggestions we get from you folks for the raw fodder for Boing Boing.

5. Blog-Directory.org (PR 6): listing 19183609 blogs in our blog directory and growing every day!

Once you are done with this, you may want to do free directory submissions as well.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
2008
12/22
CATEGORY
Directory
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Is Free Directory Submission Worth It?

I have started quite a few website in the past and I will admit that one of the first things I would do after its launch was to go and submit it to a lot of free directories. If i did not have the time to do it myself then i would use professional directory submission services. Usually submission packages start at $40 for about 250 directories which is good enough to get your website going, however if you are serious about your website / online business, I would recommend submitting to at least 1000 directories.

Though it may take about to a month to see the results but they could be remarkable if the submissions are done in a proper way. The most important thing to keep in mind while going in for free directory submission is to have at least 2-3 different titles (relevant and not stuffed with keywords) made out for your blog. Title comprises of 4-5 keywords which describe your website and which would be used to link back to your blog. If you are going for a 1000 submissions, make sure you split the submission as per the number of titles (e.g. submit 500 directories each if you have 2 titles). The more the better… but do not make it less and 200 submissions per title. There are a few reasons for the above.

1. If you submit to 200 free directories, chances are your blog will be only listed in 100-150 and for anchor text in the title to work effectively; you would need at least a 100 links on a title.

2. By submitting different titles, it makes search engines believe that it is an organic link as opposed to a paid one. Think about it, if 1000 people link to your blog, would they use the same words to make the link? No! Some would link to your blogs name; some would use some keywords which your blog is about etc. Using different titles makes the link look genuine to search engines.

3. Having different titles increases the chances of your blog being found on the search engine as every title will have 4-5 different set of keywords, this will in turn increase the traffic to your blog.

Lastly, keep the title, the description and the keywords relevant to your website while submitting. Do not try to stuff in keywords unnecessarily or the directory will reject your listing. Link building is a continuous process and you should not stop it anytime… links have a direct correlation with traffic, the more you have them the more popular your blog will be. Do not submit it to just any directory; make sure you don’t drop a link in a bad neighborhood. This is why you should not go in for cheap directory submission service, search for a review on them first and then decide. I recommend iNetZeal.com as it is a directorycritic.com company.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
2008
12/20
CATEGORY
Directory
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ABC of Making Money Online

Being the very first article, I think it should me of an introduction on why the Internet is so important and how everyone can profit from it.

As you probably know that billions of dollars worth of business is conducted online, it is done by selling products / services / advertising. This forms the core of how business takes place on the internet, however making money is not just limited to the above 3 categories.

These days not only companies but individuals also feel necessary to have a web presence, either they want to start their small company website, freelancers want a website for showcasing their service or people just want to express themselves online and interact with like minded people ( maintain an online journal or popularly called blog)

For our purpose we will focus on Blogs, why? Because they are the easiest to set up and anyone can start a blog for free on either Blogger or WordPress and for advance users who are looking for complete control of their blog, they go in for a premium self hosted blog.

Advantages of a using a free blog service such as Blogger or WordPress

1. Free of cost.
2. Setup takes 2 min, as easy as signing up for a free email.
3. Instant ready blog e.g. yourblogname.blogger.com or yourblogname.wordpress.com
4. Can change the look of your blog with a few clicks, no uploading required.
5. Best if you want to experiment or get the feel of how to go about posting articles

Disadvantages of using the free blog service.

1. You have no control of your blog, except the articles you have written.
2. Only limited advertising available, If you are looking to make money from them, then its best to go for a self hosted blog.
3. Limited themes available, you will not be able to experiment much if you are an advance user.
4. You have no control of the database hence if you want to move over to other blog services later, you may loose all your data.

Now let us discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of a self hosted blog. A self hosted blog is a software which is installed on a server so that it is unique for you. Mostly all the self hosted blogs have their own domain name e.g. yourname.com or yourname.com/blog or blog.yourname.com

Advantages of self hosted blogs.

1. Full control over the blog.
2. Complete control over advertising.
3. Looks more professional as you have a domain name.
4. Take automatic backups, so you never loose your data.

Disadvantage of self hosted blogs.

1. Its not free, you would need to pay for domain name and web hosting.
2. You may require someone to set up the blog software for you.
3. For changing themes you would need to ftp them to your server.

Conclusion: If you just want to get the feel of a blog, I would recommend you open a free account with wordpress or blogger but if you are in for the long run and are serious about making money, you would need to get a self hosted blog. If you need help, you can contact the good folks at SpeedHost.in to set up a premium WordPress blog for you.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
2008
12/19
CATEGORY
Making Money
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