Set Up Your Own Blog FreeWritten by Jim Edwards
I've received a lot of email lately from people asking how they can set up their own blogs for family, friends, or business purposes without spending much money or hiring an expensive programmer or web developer. Well, ask no more because I will now show you exactly how to get your own blog without dipping too far into your own pocket (if at all) and get up and running, even if you don't have your own website, hosting account, or domain name. You basically get two choices when it comes to setting up a blog: host it yourself, or use a service that hosts blog for you. Each one carries advantages based on your level of skill, experience and how many options you want to add to your blog. If you choose to host your blog on your own website, then you can pick from a number of different options, including MoveableType.org and WordPress.org. However, if you don't want to host it yourself, you can also go to Yahoo.com, put in term "free blog" and obtain a long list of services that will host a blog for you, either free of charge or for a fee. Probably best-known free blog service resides at Blogger.com Recently purchased by Google, Blogger boasts thousands of blogs on topics ranging from ecommerce to pet manners. Blogger enables you to set up a functional blog in about 5 minutes and start posting your thoughts, rants, or family facts with world. Log on to http://Spaces.MSN.com and find another free option offered by Microsoft's online service, MSN. This service makes it a bit easier to share photos than Blogger, which requires a separate software tool called Picasa (also available from Google for free). MSN's blogger service also seems to appeal more to individuals sharing their thoughts than to businesses trying to scare up new customers or get their links crawled by search engine spiders (another advantage of publishing a blog).
| | Offline Promotion: Undervalued OpportunityWritten by Alex Polonski
When it goes about Website promotion, people usually think about such things as search engine optimization (also known as SEO), different pay-per-click advertising opportunities (such as Google AdWords and Overture), incoming links campaigns, and other methods of online promotion. It seems obvious - Website is online, so one should promote it online. Although it is true, people always undervalue a grand set of techniques of offline promotion. So offline promotion is…Basically, it’s a complex of activities that make your target group aware of your Website’s existence through different material mediums or word of mouth. Let’s imagine that you are trying to promote a company’s Website. Your target group doesn’t surf Internet to find a company like yours. It’s used to seek potential partners trough exhibitions, industry magazines or so. However, you do realize that if they see your Website and find all necessary info there, they won’t pass by your company under no circumstances. What should you do then? Definitely, you should advertise your Website with those mediums that can reach your customer’s mind freely. More often than you might imagine, your message can be located offline. Is it right for me?Like there is no universal cure for anyone, there is no common answer for that question. However, there are two main groups of Websites that can benefit from usage of some offline promotional techniques: - Online community Websites;
- Websites of companies that run their operations offline.
Why those two? The logic is different there. As for online communities, those unprofitable Websites unite thousands of people common in their interests. So we can assume that if your community Website is dedicated to e.g. blues harmonica playing you can promote it widely with some material fan attributes etc. Your aim here would be to involve as many permanent visitors as you can.As for company’s Website, you should turn an attention of a specific narrow circle of potential customers and partners. Business people are like two-faced Janus; they believe only facts, people they know and material things, while they like to get an info as quickly as Internet can afford (if not even rapidly). Tell them about your company in a real time, let others tell them about you too, give them your card with your site’s URL, and you’ll be looking much more solid in their eyes, much worthier than your competitors. Here techniques go…The number of ways of offline promotion is infinite. It can be limited with your own fantasy only. However, it would be wise to divide all possible ways into 3 main groups. | Group | Appeals to | Presumable Effect | | Wide exposure of site’s URL on different material mediums (bags, billboards etc.) | People’s Curiosity | - Increase of site’s general traffic.
- Some visitors can become permanent.
| | Usage of site’s URL on company’s souvenirs, proposals etc. | Need to find a necessary info | - Increase of company’s solid image in potential partners’ eyes.
- Their awareness of company’s existence.
| | Usage of site’s URL on different occasions (press releases, conversations) | People’s Curiosity | - Increase of site’s targeted traffic.
| Let’s clarify a usage of those groups.1. Wide exposure of site’s URL on different material mediums. Material mediums mentioned above can be: - Billboards;
- Bags;
- Umbrellas;
- Cars;
- T-Shirts and caps;
- Print, radio, television ads etc.
That method can be used effectively mainly for online community site’s promotion just because it appeals to people curiosity. A general scheme of its performance is: - A person sees an ad;
- He gets curious;
- He keeps URL in mind;
- As soon as he gets to Internet he visits that URL;
- At end, he either returns over and over, or he doesn’t.
In some specific cases, such method can give great results for companies’ Websites as well. It can be true mainly if: - The company has a well-known brand, so that such promotion can be just a reminiscent advertising.
- The company runs a specific advertising campaign that makes people get curious and visit its Website.
As a conclusion, one should say that although such method can give high increase of general traffic, only a little number of visitors would be targeted. However, word-of-mouth effect will change scale to proper direction then.
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