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Empower Network Version 2 (ENv2) Blog Beast Review

Now that Empower Network’s Blog Beast launch has finally happened the internet is being flooded with all the fake reviews from members who are doing nothing more than deceptively promoting the program in order to try getting you to join under them. This tends to happen every time something big launches in the internet marketing world where people are able to make money promoting it.

Spoiler alert! See our review of 123profit for the best way to earn money online right now.

So, I figured it was time for me to give you my real review of the new Empower Network blogging system (also known as ENv2, Blogging Beast, BlogBeast Redemption, and several other things) so you can get totally unbiased information and make a truly informed decision on whether it’s for you or not. You won’t find any affiliate links, hype, false deception, or anything else shady in this review. It is simply my opinions of the program based on personal experience, history, what I have heard from people I trust, and what I have seen thus far.

There are people who swear it’s an all out scam, there are people who are livid at the way they launched blog beast, there are people who couldn’t care less either way, there are people who say this is the best way to start an online home business since the internet was invented… and everything in-between. Love it or hate it, one thing is for sure, ENv2 is causing quite a stir in the make money online world.

There are huge name internet marketers on the inside and plenty of them who are very outspoken against it, which is understandable considering the intro BlogBeast video for ENv2 starts out by bashing some of the biggest names of the internet marketing industry. Anyway, that’s beside the point, I’m not here to give a lesson in how you should or shouldn’t create a launch video. I’m just here to give you my honest review of the Empower Network ENv2 Blog Beast Viral Blogging System.

Personally, I have opinions on both ends of the spectrum. Some things I really like about Empower Network Version 2 (ENv2) and some things I think are not good at all. I will warn you ahead of time that I have cancelled my membership. Maybe that tips you off to how my review will turn out and ruins it for you, or maybe it makes you curious to read on? Hmmm…

* Why should you listen to me?

You might be thinking to yourself, “Who is this guy and why should I even listen to him?”

Well, I’ve been a full time internet marketer and blogger since way back in 2003 so I have more than a decade of experience in this industry. In that time, I have been a part of more than my fair share of network marketing programs, home business opportunities, and every other type of money making system.

I’m also a moderator of several work at home, online business, and entrepreneur related forums where I’ve had the duty of reviewing hundreds of different programs in order to help the members with their questions. Plus, I own or manage well over 100 websites and blogs in all sorts of different niches.

I guess you could say that I have basically seen it all and done it all when it comes to the world of making money online. I can pretty much see all the angles and look past all the hype of this industry in order to truly see whether something is legit or not. I know how to make money with various programs and whether they are worth the investment, or not.

* What is ENv2 Blogging Beast?

Well, if you are completely new to everything to do with the original Empower Network and the new ENv2 “Blog Beast” Viral Blogging System, then here’s a quick rundown of the features:

* Simple Audio and Video Blogging
* Maintain Multiple Blogs at Once
* Easy Mobile Blogging
* Re-Blogging
* Social Sharing
* Content Locking
* Full Training
* Business Opportunity
* Lots of Kool-Aid to Drink (Ok, I may have added that one myself)

If you dig deep enough, you will find that ENv2 is a blogging system crossed with an affiliate program combined with a network marketing company married to a MLM commission structure. Yeah, that pretty much covers it all when it comes to internet home business opportunities and make money online programs. However, this really is a hybrid that pretty much takes them all into account and tries to include the best parts from each one.

There’s no denying that Empower Network offers one of the biggest blogging communities and best publishing platforms on the internet. They also give very good leadership training products and services to internet marketers and small business owners. It was originally created to help struggling internet marketers and home based business owners build and grow a successful online business. Their flagship product is a viral blogging system that boasts more 70,000 users and growing all over the world.

Their new version 2, called Blog Beast, will cost you $25 per month at the lowest level, which is the same price as the original EPN system. It gets progressively more expensive depending on what you want to buy and whether you want to go “all in” or not. Honestly, I think it’s insanely expensive if you do go all in and buy every level.

If you were already a member of Empower Network then you will be automatically switched over to the new system, and the first thing you will notice is that ENv2 Blog Beast features a bunch of new features that were not in the first generation of the EN system. It is undoubtedly faster and easier to use than it was before. Also, members can now run multiple blogs from one account.

Another new and prominent feature of version 2 is the mobile app. This allows you to sync your blog(s) from your smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. With the blog beast mobile app, you can easily record and upload videos on the go. It also makes it a lot easier to post and share all types of content without needing any technical skills. Therefore, you can really work from home with your blog, or from just about anywhere.

That all sounds great on the surface, and to many people it might be more than worth the cost of the ENV2 blog beast system. However, to me it sounds like a bunch of stuff that you can do on your own using existing platforms and plugins without needing to rely on empower network or pay for it.

Simply put, it is a fairly easy to use publishing platform and business system designed to give you a relatively simple way to make money blogging. Hence, the “viral blogging system” they are always ranting and raving about. There is also an affiliate program you can join to promote empower network itself in order to earn residual income from people who join under you. Not bad, but really nothing special.

* What are the Blog Beast 17 Blogging Blunders I keep hearing about and are they good information?

Officially, it’s actually called, “The 17 Super Dumbass Blogging Blunders” but that’s beside the point. I’m not going to say a whole lot about them simply because I am not here to give away their information, and you can get the ebook and video for free anyway if you just go opt-in to their sales funnel. Then, you can just turn right around and opt-out so you don’t have to keep getting their emails if you have decided that the empower network version 2.0 isn’t for you.

I will say that the information in the free 17 blogging blunders ebook is solid and legit. I’ve been a blogger for many years and can attest to the fact that most of the advice they give is true and useful. The worst part about it, in my opinion, is that they constantly plug their blog beast platform throughout the ebook. But that can be expected and if you can ignore it, then it’s pretty good. Plus, it’s free, so there’s no reason not to at least give it a quick read to see if you can pick up some tips to help you build a more successful blog, and therefore and more profitable online business.

* Is Empower Network Version 2.0 a scam or is it a legitimate way to start an online business?

There are a lot of people asking if empower network is a scam. No, it isn’t a scam. Some people like to be quite loose with the “scam” word and throw that label on everything. But I’ve seen a lot of real scams and this is not one of them.

Honestly, it is a legit way to start a blog which can be turned into a real internet business and be a great way to make money online. However, I do think it is overpriced and not actually needed anyway. Plus, their upsells are ridiculously expensive and certainly not nearly as vital to success as they try to make them out to be. But a scam it is not.

* Really though, can I make money online with the “Blog Beast” viral blogging system?

Yeah, of course you can, anyone with a blog can! But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to, or that you have any sort of advantage by taking this route. To be honest, most people with blogs never make a cent and many of them spend a lot of time and effort trying. For every person making a living from a blog there are 10,000 more that aren’t earning anything, or if they are lucky they are maybe scraping in enough to pay a bill or two.

That’s not intended to discourage you. I truly think starting your own business website/blog is an excellent idea! Everyone should do it, and I mean that with all my heart and soul. Honestly, I do! However, the fact is that most people who do will never make any money from it.

I’m just being real here. The ENV2 blog beast cheerleaders want you to believe that you will just join up, do a bit of writing, share some content, and then retire on a tropical beach somewhere. But that’s not going to happen! I can promise you that right now.

Yes, if you are willing to learn how to choose a profitable niche, do keyword research, write compelling content, blog consistently, implement on-page search engine optimization (SEO), learn and keep up to date with off-site SEO, master social media marketing, become a video marketer, and a whole bunch of other things just like any other internet marketing specialist or professional blogger has to, then yes you can certainly build a successful online business blog in order to make money on the internet. It sure as heck won’t be easy and it definitely won’t happen quickly, but you can do it if you are truly dedicated to putting in a LOT of time, effort, money, sleepless nights, arguments with your spouse, loss of friends, and no more television, or wasting time on anything unimportant!

* Should I join Empower Network?

In my opinion, you would be far better off starting your own blog with your own domain on your own hosting. There are a ton of advantages in the long run to doing it that way and very few disadvantages. Once you get past all the crazy hype, all you are really getting with Empower Network is an expensive blog with a network marketing program to promote on it, and a little bit of training. That’s nothing special by any means.

I will say that using the ENv2 blogging system may give you a slight headstart as far as search engine rankings are concerned simply because they have build up a lot of authority already, and your blog gets some benefit from that juice. But that’s the biggest benefit I see to using it, and it’s not nearly as enough of a positive for me to recommend the program.

You could even start a completely free blog on something like blogger.com and essentially do the exact same thing without spending a dime, and basically have the same benefits and risks.

* Final thoughts

The part that I dislike the most about the entire system, and the major reason why I cancelled my account before spending too much of my time or money with them, is because THE BLOG IS NOT YOURS! Let me repeat that… The blog is NOT yours!

That means if you ever stop paying, or if Empower Network ever gets shut down, or they ever re-structure to change the entire program, or anything else happens — You will lose all that time and hard work you have put in, and all the income you have coming in from it. You can literally lose your entire online business overnight at no fault of your own. It’s completely out of your control.

Trust me, this happens a lot more often than you might think with programs like this. I’ve been around the internet marketing industry long enough to have seen it happen many times, even with the most highly touted and seemingly rock solid programs. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes even if everything looks great on the surface.

This is the main reason why I do not recommend becoming a user of ENv2 Blog Beast.

Do you honestly believe they will be around forever? I don’t! And when they go down, your blog goes down with them along with all your time, hard work, content, and income! So, stay away folks.

If you need something you can basically just plug into almost immediately without needing to learn much of anything in order to get started, and you don’t mind paying the inflated costs for that luxury or care about the fact that you are at their mercy and could lose it all in an instant, then I say go for it. For some people that is okay but I don’t think it’s worth it, so I am not recommending it.

I’ll admit, it sounds awesome and very hard to resist, but that’s exactly what they want so you will join! They are great marketers – there’s no denying that.

Quick summary:
– Do I recommend joining? No, I don’t, but honestly it could be a lot worse. I’m close to the borderline on this one, so I wouldn’t completely blame you if you did.
– Is it a scam? Nope, I do admit that it is a legitimate online business blogging system, but still I am saying you can do better.
– Can you make money with ENv2 blog beast? Yes, it’s possible.
– Will you make money with it? That depends, but probably not.

And that, my new friend, is my honest review of empower network version 2… ENv2… blog beast… aka several other names. Hell, I don’t even know what it’s called. ;)

5 Proven Tips for Blogging Success

These days blogs are everywhere. Most businesses have them, many people have at least one, and lots of trusted news outlets deliver their content through them. If you search for just about anything online you are likely to come across at least one blog. And the number of blogs on the internet is growing exponentially each year.

With that in mind, there are a few things you should do if you are thinking about starting a blog, or if you already have one, and you want it to be successful. You can’t just throw one up and expect readers, rankings, and money to come pouring in. It takes a lot to time and effort to become a successful blogger.

Here are some proven tips that almost all blogging professionals followed to become successful…

1) Valuable content is always king. High quality, original, useful content should be the base of any blog. Your readers need to find lots of value in your content or they won’t keep coming back to read it. If your blog focuses on news of some sort, be sure you are providing up to date information. If your blog sets out to teach the user something, be sure to teach in a clear, concise and practical way. If your content is not engaging then nothing else you do with your blog will matter.

2) Don’t hide. If you are the only person posting content to the blog, you should put a picture of yourself along with a short bio on the sidebar, and link it to the “about” page where you go into more detail about you and your blog. If the blog has multiple authors, give each of them a page on where they add information about themselves. Readers want to feel connected with the person(s) providing the content on a blog, so show them you are real and can relate to them.

3) Encourage interaction. Try getting people to post comments as much as possible. You want your readers to feel like they are able to interact with you and network with other readers. By allowing, and encouraging comments, you are creating a sense of community and belonging. If your readers feel like they are a part of the site, they will keep coming back.

4) Make it Fun. Find ways to keep your readers entertained and coming back other than just to read. Make use of polls, games, social media, pictures, videos, and so on. Your writing is important but it’s always good to spice things up a bit too.

5) Frequent Updates. Although not quite as important as quality, the quantity of content on a blog is still very important. People want to see new posts quite often. Try to set a schedule for regular updates and stick to it. If you need to write a bunch of posts in one day and schedule them out to post automatically later on, then go ahead and do that. Just make sure your blog is being updated frequently. Subscribers and regular readers will begin to lose interest if you don’t give them a reason to keep coming back.

There’s no doubt that it takes a lot of hard work to build a successful blog, but in the end, it’s more than worth it. Follow the tips above and you will be well on your way!

Three Important Factors for Successful Content Writing

If you have a blog or any other type of website for your online business then you need to know how to write great content. At the very minimum you are going to be writing for your own blogs/sites. In addition to that, you will probably be writing for at least one of the following reasons, if not all of them; articles for promotion, press releases, guest posts for other blogs, information products, sales copy, and more.

Whatever the reason may be, it is vitally important to be able to write well if you plan to build a successful internet business of any kind. Here are 3 important factors for successful content writing on the web:

1) Write Frequently

If you want to become a sports superstar or a famous musician, or become successful at anything else, you have to practice. The same rule applies for writing high quality content. You need to hone your writing skills and keep them sharp. In order to do that you should write a bare minimum of 500 words every day. That might sound like a lot but it’s really not very much at all. The post you are reading right now is around that length and it’s nothing special. Really most days you should write up to five times that amount, or more.

This doesn’t have to be for the same blog/site… you can write ebooks, do blogger outreach, have multiple sites, write articles, freelance writing, and so on!

Another thing you want to do that goes along with writing a lot is read a lot. Find blogs, articles, forums, books, and other things in your niche to read on a regular basis. Believe it or not but reading will help you with writing. And they don’t all have to be in your niche, you should read other stuff too. Any time you read good writing it will help you become a better writer.

2) Develop a Unique Writing Style

As you continue to write and read, you should be able to develop a writing style that is unique to you and doesn’t sound like everyone else out there. Be different and embrace the fact that you have your own unique style of writing. Stick with it and people will take notice. You can build up a very loyal following if you write in a way that people truly enjoy.

3) Be Valuable

A very important factor for successfully writing online is to be very valuable to your readers. How you provide value will depend on your niche and what you are trying to accomplish with your website. In general, this will usually mean that you either entertain or educate your readers with your writing. It’s even better if you can do both at the same time but you definitely need to at least do one or the other.

If you are just stringing words together for the sake of writing then you will never build up a readership. People either want to learn or be entertained, or both at once. If you can do that with your writing then you will do great.

So, three of the most important factors for successful content writing online are to write (and read) frequently, develop a unique writing style, and be valuable to your readers. If you keep those three factors in mind when writing then you should be able to create great content for your online business.

Up and Comers vs Established Bloggers

When you are starting out with a new blog, you might look up to other bloggers in your niche for inspiration and ideas about how you can reach those levels of success for yourself.

It makes perfect sense of course, you want to be as successful as they are, right? But you might just find that emulating them isn’t quite enough. Here’s why…

* Success breeds success

It is a shame but often very good blog posts will be largely ignored when they are published on small lesser known blogs, whilst posts that aren’t as good that are published by established bloggers will receive much more acclaim.

The fact is that a successful blog instantly has more credibility than a new one, sometimes almost regardless of quality. In the online world, first mover advantage is alive and well and if you are just starting out you probably don’t have it.

* How can you become established and credible?

Well firstly, you need to find your own angle. It is easy to think that if you can write as well as another blogger you can be just as successful. This isn’t true most of the time.

You need to either be better, or different. Ask yourself the question “why would people read my blog instead of theirs?” If you try to emulate a successful blog, you might find you can’t answer this question.

* Up and coming blogs

A really helpful way to find your own voice is to look at the up and coming blogs in your niche. These are the guys that are doing exactly what you want to do – they are gaining popularity and becoming established.

Each of these up and comers have one thing in common; they have found a way to differentiate their blogs (even if they don’t realize it).

Again, just copying them isn’t enough, but try comparing them to the big guys and try to figure out what their unique selling point is, what angle have they used to set themselves apart and how are they promoting themselves?

You can build up a very successful blog and become a professional blogger, but it will take a lot of time and hard work. You aren’t going to do it by copying others, you must find a way to be unique while still following the overall success recipe of the top blogs in your niche.

This guest post was brought to you by Alex from ToMakeALiving.com – A site dedicated to showing you how to earn money online.

7 Powerful WordPress Plugins to Turbocharge Your Blogs Performance

A key factor in both visitor satisfaction and keeping the search engines happy right now is making sure that your blog loads quickly. There should be no errors, no waiting – just click and boom the content is ready for your visitors.

If, for whatever reason, your blog is running slowly then it can affect your online business in a number of ways. Firstly people aren’t willing to wait around for pages to load anymore.

They used to say you had 30 seconds to grab a visitors attention and in the days of dial-up internet access that was true but today a guesstimate is that you have at most 10 seconds before the surfer hits the back button and goes looking somewhere else for what they want.

Secondly if your blog is loading slowly it can directly affect your search engine rankings. Slower sites don’t do as well in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

So it’s important that your WordPress blog is hosted with a reliable company that have no real latency issues but it’s equally important that you optimize your WordPress blog with plugins that help reduce the page load time as much as possible.

Before you get carried away just make sure that you test the actual speed of your blog first – you might not need to make any changes. You can run a speed test here -> http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test

Then if you decide you want to optimize your WordPress blog speed here are 7 of the very best plugins you can use to help achieve this goal:

1. WP Smush.It – This plugin automatically reduces the size of image files on the fly so they will load more quickly. Very neat and very effective.

2. WP HTTP Compression – By outputting your pages in zip format to a compatible browser the WP HTTP Compression plugin can reduce your page size by up to 80% as well as increasing your download speeds by up to 4 times. It shouldn’t be used in conjunction with WP Super Cache however.

3. Hyper Cache – If your blog is hosted by a provider without a whole pile of cutting edge resources then this plugin is ideal for you. It’s very easy to configure and is automatically optimized to reduce disk usage for your blog.

4. WP Optimize – This is a very simple but very effect database clean up tool and allows you to run database maintenance without using PhpMyAdmin as well as clearing out your spam or comment queue with a couple of clicks.

5. WP Super Cache – This very neat plug created HTML files from your WordPress blog data and serves those instead. This reduces the overhead on the server dishing out the files because the SQL database for your WordPress install isn’t constantly involved or being queried. A very neat solution but check its compatibility with other plugins or themes you might be using.

6. WP Minify – This plugin helps you compress JavaScript and CSS files to make sure that pages load more quickly. Most theme developers don’t take the time to optimize their CSS so this plugin can really help with that problem and speed up your blog loading time as a result.

7. Hosting Monitor Plugin – This cool plugin allows you to check host up-time, hardware info, load average and the current users. Basically it allows you to keep tabs on your web host to make sure they are not the cause of your blog suffering from any speed problems. It’s one thing for a web host to claim 99.9% up-time… But it’s another thing to actually do it.

Hopefully you’ll find at least some of these plugins useful for when you’re doing your best to optimize your WordPress blog. Remember that the overall visitor experience is critical to you achieving the kind of massive and loyal online audience that you want.

Don’t let the fans down eh?

Web Hack: How to Embed Facebook Videos

YouTube makes it easy to embed videos. All you have to do is copy and paste the code and you’re done. But what can you do if you come across a Facebook video you would like to share with your readers? Unfortunately Facebook is not quite as a accommodating as YouTube and they only provide the ability to share their videos in the Facebook world.

So, does that mean there’s nothing you can do? Of course not. Remember, where there’s a will, there’s a way and that includes embedding Facebook videos. However, before you embed any Facebook video into your website, it is important that you remember that Facebook videos are private property and aren’t part of the public domain. As a result, you should get permission before embedding anyone’s video, especially if you want to avoid a law suit. Plus it’s just good web etiquette to ask first.

Anyway, on to embedding a Facebook video…

So, you’re watching a Facebook video in your profile or news feed and once it reaches the end, you have three options:

– Share
– Play Again
– Go to video

Now, you need to get to the page where the video is being hosted, so hit “Go to Video.” Once the page loads, you will need to look in the browser bar and copy the URL address of the video. At the moment, it looks something like:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=12345678901

Unfortunately, this URL is the address of the Facebook video page and not the video itself, which means that it can’t be embedded. This address will have to be edited so that the actual URL of the video will embed and you will be able to play a Facebook video on your website. So, the edited URL will look like this:

http://www.facebook.com/v/12345678901

If you analyze the new URL, you will find that the number hasn’t changed. That’s because this number basically identifies which video you are looking at. So, essentially, when you look up at the browser bar, all you have to do is copy the ID number and replace it in the above URL. Simple and quick.

Now, let’s look at how to actually embed the video. You’ll be using the standard code that’s used to embed shockwave flash videos. Don’t worry, you don’t have to turn into a genius programmer just yet. I’ve included the code for you.

Upon closer inspection, you will find that this is the embed code for a YouTube video, which is exactly what we are looking for. You’ll have to replace the YouTube URLs with the Facebook URL you modified. So, in line 2, after value= replace everything in quotes with the edited Facebook URL. Likewise, you’ll have to do the same thing in line 5, after src= and that’s it. The final code should look something like this:

Once you’ve modified the code accordingly, you simply need to switch your post to HTML mode and paste in the code. Publish the post and you’ll soon have your very own embedded Facebook video.

It’s not as difficult as you might have thought at first. However, it is important to remind you again that you need to ask permission from the owner of the video before embedding their work since it is copyrighted material. The last thing you want is to have any trouble when all you need to do is send a quick message asking for permission. It’s much better to be safe than sorry.

Five Excellent Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

When you first start blogging, you need to fill your blog with plenty of good content. That is very important and it’s something you will continue to do for the life of the blog. After you have made several good posts, your next step is to start driving traffic to the blog. You need to do this so you actually have visitors to read your content. There’s no point in having a blog if nobody reads it. And hopefully you will make money from your readers and visitors.

You may have even found this post by searching for ways to make money blogging and the main thing you need in order to that (other than the blog itself) is lots of people visiting your blog. There are many good ways to drive traffic to your blog, and more keep coming out all the time as the internet evolves and new online properties are developed and expanded. But below we’ll share some of the most popular and easiest traffic generation methods, and they are all free…

1) Article marketing

Writing and submitting articles to directories (article marketing) is a powerful way to start driving targeted traffic to your blog. It’s also an excellent way to build up backlinks to help your blog rank higher in organic search results, which brings in even more visitors and more money. Basically all you do is write informative articles related to the topics of your blog and submit them to some of the countless online articles directories.

Every article you submit should contain a simple author “bio box” that includes a short business description and one or two links to your blog. Keep it fairly short and simple, you don’t need to put a lot in there. For example, it could be something like this… “For more useful tips about how to make money online check out my top ranked blog at https://www.gr1innovations.com and subscribe to get a free copy of my internet money tips report.”

Notice how I put one keyword anchored hyperlink and one regular link? I like to do it that way to help ensure I get at least one link from the article if other bloggers republish it on their blogs.

2) Guest posting

This is one of the best strategies available to drive traffic to your blog. The reasons are simple; you will get targeted visitors from the post itself to your blog as well as very high quality backlinks to help with your search engine rankings. In addition to that, you are doing a form of networking with other bloggers in your niche by writing for them, so it helps tremendously in making friends for future partnerships. They may also recommend you to their readers in other posts of theirs or link to your blog in their sidebar.

The strategy is fairly straightforward, just find blogs in the same/similar niches as yours, and check to see if they accept guest posts. Often times it will be obvious if they do because they will have a link on their home page to another page explaining their guest blogging rules and how to send the post. Other times it won’t be so obvious and you will need to contact the owner to ask if you can send them a guest post.

It’s important to write very high quality original posts that the blog owners want to publish and their visitors want to read. Become familiar with the content they have on their blog already so you are sure to write something that they like. Match the quality of their posts or even go above it to ensure you are up to their standards and set yourself apart from other people who might also be sending them guest posts.

3) Social media marketing

There is a seemingly unlimited supply of social networking and social bookmarking sites on the internet right now and more are being created all the time. Almost all of them are free and you can use them to drive traffic to your blog fairly easily. Some of the more popular social media sites include; Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Mixx, and LinkedIn. But there are many more that are very popular and work well for getting traffic to your blog.

Also, if you have a WordPress blog, there are several great plugins that you can install to make it very easy for your visitors (or yourself) to share your posts on social sites. A few of these popular plugins are Sociable, SexyBookmarks, Digg Digg, AddtoAny, Socialize, and several others. They all basically do the same thing and can be helpful for getting more traffic to your blog.

You can also use a free service such as socialmarker.com or onlywire.com to submit your posts to many of the top social bookmarking sites all at once. These can save a lot of time and make your social media marketing strategy much simpler.

4) Blog commenting

Interacting with owners and readers of other blogs via comments is a great way to start attracting attention to your own blog too. Visit popular blogs that are related to your niche and comment on their posts. Most blog comment forms allow you to include your name and a URL, so put your information in those fields.

Be sure to make your comments valuable and relevant to the post — don’t just spam your blog link everywhere, and don’t be a blatant self-promoter by writing something stupid like, “Great post, come visit my blog!” — Doing those things will get you nowhere and can actually do more harm than good. Read the entire post first then make an effort to share your thoughts and ideas, compliment others on theirs, agree or disagree with the content, and generally be a valued contributor.

5) Forums

Forums can be great places to interact with like-minded people on your topics of interest and the topics of your blog. Most forums allow you to include a signature that automatically appears below every post you make, which can (and should) contain a link to your blog. If you help and interact with other members and share good information, many of them will be interested enough to start visiting your blog.

There you have it, 5 excellent ways to drive traffic to your blog on a daily basis. Using these internet marketing methods regularly will bring lots of traffic to your blog and increase your profits if your intent is to make money blogging.

What Blogging Platform is Recommended

The recommended blogging platform depends on what you want. There are many different blogging platform that you can use to blog. It depends on you, the webmaster to choose what best fits your needs. There is a list of weblogs at wikipedia. Among all the blogging platforms, some platforms needs you to download and install, some are open source and free, some are proprietary software that may be licensed for a fee or have versions available free of charge.

From the choice of platform of the top 100 blogs, you will see that WordPress is the most used platform. Not only with the A-list bloggers, wordpress is the most used platform in the blogosphere overall.

Why does the A-list bloggers use their platform. I don’t know why, but I can speak from my experience with blogger, wordpress.com, wordpress.org.

1. Blogger – This is a free blogging service owned by Google. It is easy to use. This is the recommended blogging platform to start with if you are looking for a free service to get going on quickly and easily. Most bloggers start with this one to get a feel of how to blog on a software. But it has its disadvantages. One of them is that it doesn’t allow you to customize your blog very much. Register with Blogger.

2. WordPress.org – This is a free open source platform that needs to be hosted on your server. At first, it seems complicated to use, but gradually it would become easy. WordPress allows you to do anything you want. You can customize it to your taste. The only major disadvantage is that it needs constant update to keep up with security issues. Download and install WordPress

3. WordPress.com – This is the free version of wordpress.org that is easier to use but doesn’t have the full functionality. It is updated constantly by the wordpress team. The only disadvantage is that it doesn’t allow Javascript code. You need javascript code to run adsense, analytics, and some affiliate links. Get wordpress.com blog.

I recommend using hosted wordpress.org if you can afford a webhost. You just have to be sure to update it often. But for beginners, blogger is recommended to get a feel of the blogging waters.

Are You Ready to Choose a Niche?

Have you decided to start your own blog? Great! But what will you blog about? Remember blogging is like a business. Every business owners goal is to build the business up and earn a good living doing it. The business is required to make money to support the owner. So you should plan on keeping your blog online for a long time and continually build it into a profitable venture for you. Use your blog as a medium of communication to other people and a way to teach people about topics you know.

What will you blog about? There are many things or topics you can blog about when starting an online business. The thing or topic that are bloggable is called a Niche. Finding a niche to blog about is not as difficult as it seems. For instance, you are using either a desktop pc, laptop, tablet, or smartphone to read this… You could make a blog about computers and other electronic devices and their accessories. You can also make a blog about protecting or fixing computers.

Another example is you are wearing clothes at this present moment, I assume, so you can start a blog on types of clothes, latest clothing trends, or fashion. You can blog about topics you are an expert on or hobbies you have and give a detailed description about the topics. You can blog about something that interests you or even start a local niche blog. The opportunities are endless. It just takes some creativity and research.

But I am not an expert? That is okay. Show people that you are willing to learn. How does someone become an expert? They learn! It is not easy. An expert is made overnight. The expert was once a newbie and she struggled to become an expert. If she can do it, then why can’t you? The key with becoming an expert is to work hard. Long ago, I was not an expert on how to make money online, but I worked hard to get there.