When I first heard of the word “blog” years ago in the mid 90’s, I was puzzled as to why I did not hear it earlier, having been immersed in the English language for more that 4 decades!

Naturally, I reached for my half-a-dozen copies of dictionaries on the shelf to check for its meaning but I could not find one. The reason is simple…… the word “BLOG” simply did not exist in my dictionaries including the Oxford Dictionary!

A frantic search led me to Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang that eventually gave me a clue. It says “blog noun An Internet website containing an eclectic and frequently updated assortment of items of interest to its author. 1999-. [Shortening of weblog.] So blogger, noun” Not happy with this half-hearted and vague explanation, I ventured into the Web to do further “research”.   Lo and behold! I’ve got some more meaningful citations. Below is a list of these.

-  Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.

-  A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

-  A blog is information that is instantly published to a Web site. Blog scripting allows someone to automatically post information to a Web site. The information first goes to a blogger Web site. Then the information is automatically inserted into a template tailored for your Web site.

-  A short form for weblog, a frequent and chronological publication of comments and thoughts on the web. They usually include philosophical reflections, opinions on the Internet and social or political issues.

-  Web LOG is a journal kept on the internet. This journal is often updated daily and contains all information that the person maintaining the BLOG (Blogger) wishes to share with the world. Also applies to websites dedicated to a particular topic and being updated with the latest news, views and trends.

There’s no need to go on because I’m now more than satisfied with the definition.

Many years have passed since and blogging has come a long way indeed. Not only can you do all the above mentioned, you could now also make full use of it to promote and expand your Internet business.

Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that is free because you could create your blog almost immediately at no cost compared to the setting up of a conventional website.

Putting information in your blog to help establishing your presence in the Web is now a growing phenomenon. Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to enhance the visibility of your products and services.

With the continuing improvement in software technology, publishing, introducing plug-ins, banners, pictures etc to create a fun and interesting “website” has become a breeze even to those with old and rusty brains like me.

Here is what you could do to improve your Internet online business:-

1) Give advice to your visitors on specific tips, tricks and opportunities related to your own business with the objective to increase awareness not only about yourself but also your business. This will establish you as an authority with customers, prospects and casual visitors through your publications.

2) Encourage readers to leave their comments and feedback. Positive feedback could some times help you to improve your website design, layout, content and hence your buisness.   3) Make announcement and broadcasting on any new changes or offers available in your main websites, for instance, new products and/or services.

4) All your postings in your blog could be kept in an Archive file which is very friendly for retrieving. You can therefore keep track of all your business plans and old but important information.

5) Any articles which you have written and posted could be reprinted by others for their own websites with your permission on condition that the resource box about the author remains unchanged i.e. with all your important URLs intact. This would link your websites to other websites hence exposing your business to more visitors.

6) Try adding fresh and quality content to it on a regular basis since search engines like fresh content. As a result, search engines will list your website in their directories. As soon as you have pages of your blog in the search engines, you’ll start attracting free traffic to your site without having to paying a dime for it.

7) Include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. Affiliate links in the form of advertisement banners could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.

You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. You can have some kind of link exchanges with other bloggers for mutual benefits of increasing traffic to your blog and other main websites.   In summary, there’s almost no limit to what you could and want to do with your blog. You can include your ideas, opinions, expertise in your field of work, resumes, home recipes, pictures, streaming audio or video clips, e-books, poetry, products, services, consultations etc., etc. 

What are the main differences between a blog and a website then? You may ask.   Most websites are relatively permanent with only occasional updating. With blogs, you could post any new content almost on daily basis. Also, websites are usually less personal as far as their relationship with the visitors is concerned.

Visitors to your blog could leave comment after their visits which sometimes could prompt a follow-up discussion between you and them resulting with both parties learning from each another.

So how do you start blogging? There are many host services providers you could join. Among the most popular are Blogger.com and LiveJournal.com. I’m using Blogger.com which I find serving my needs just perfectly.

In closing, you must realize that to be successful in running your business blog, you need to be very passionate about your products and services. Share your ideas, opinions and thoughts to assert yourself as an authority in your field. The visitors who are your customers or potential customers would remember your blog and keep coming back.

COME BLOG WITH ME TODAY and ride the crest of the business blogging wave! Happy blogging!

About The Author:
John Woon (Sung-Liang) is Rubber and Latex Consultant and an Internet marketer. Check this fantastic website to find out how he has ventured into Internet business: 3 Easy Steps To Start
Your Own Home Business Visit his website and blog at: Best Home Based Businesses, and Best Online Business Opportunities

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/come-blog-with-me-and-ride-the-crest-of-the-blogging-wave-of-internet-business-1002787.html

Copyright © 2005 John Woon (Sung-Liang) http://www.johnwoon.com

If you’re given a choice of making $500 as a one-time payment OR getting only $100 but paid this amount every month for 20 years if not for life, which would you choose?

If you work only once and get paid many times over, you’re earning a RESIDUAL INCOME. Of course you’d choose the latter.

Elvis Presley today “continues” to earn residual income even after death because his records continue to “work” for him due to continued demand from his fans.

Therefore it goes without saying that in order to build wealth, you need to tap into RESIDUAL INCOME. Very often this is also referred to as “PASSIVE INCOME” because you could afford to be passive or non-active (i.e. not having to work) and still continue to receive income.

If you’re like most people, you’ve been conditioned your whole life to think about income as a process of trading time and effort for money. Like the majority, you have been brought up to have only one major objective in life – JOB! Incidentally, if you don’t already know, to many, JOB stands for “Just Over Broke”.

You work hard in schools so that you could get good grades to advance to colleges and universities where you work even harder so that you could get a good and secured JOB. Once you’ve got the jobs you want, you continue to work very hard in order to maintain them and to climb the so-called organizational ladder of success.

As a result, many have fallen into the trap of the RAT RACE and you know very well you can’t afford to stop because if you did, so would your income!

Although some of us could be drawing quite a handsome income, we’re not truly “wealthy” because we’re not free to do what we want and when we want with our money.

I’ve heard of many sad stories of “rich” EMPLOYEES not being able to spend badly needed valuable time with members of their families who’re sick in hospitals because they could not afford to be away from their place of work for too long as their services are urgently required by their employers. Doctors could not even really relax and enjoy a long vacation for fear of the loss of income or patients while their clinics remain closed.

Can I really have PASSIVE INCOME? You might ask. Indeed you can!

About 600 million people have access to the Internet – and yet it is still in its infancy. Every month millions of newcomers and thousands of businesses are reported to be setting up online.

With this huge and expanding audience coupled with the fact that marketing and advertising can be done on the Internet so easily and at only a fraction of the costs of traditional methods, we now have a fantastic opportunity to be successful in online business.

Many companies have now aligned themselves with the Internet which has created many new paradigms in the past few years. Residual Incomes are made available to people from all walks of life. You can now make money online with simple and proven formula used by many to earn multiple streams of residual income.

However don’t believe what you’ve heard or seen in the Internet. Scepticism is encouraged because there are some dishonest people creating a lot of hype, unfulfilled promises and scams going around the Internet.

Fortunately however, these are the exception, rather than the rule. You must be able to feel absolutely confident about using the services offered by “Internet Business Gurus” to help you make money online before you sign up. If you have any slightest doubt at all, drop it and move on to another.

There’re many who belong to reputable organizations such as iCop™ and Better Internet Bureau™ as part of their commitment to uphold the highest business and ethical standards possible.

Many programs are designed for newbies who have no time or interest to learn HTML, Java, PHP and ASP. With a simple Control Panel, you’re only a few clicks away from having a complete and professional website to start your online Internet home-based business!

You need not have sleepless nights worrying about programming, web or graphic design, scripts, or content and product creation. Further more, with some programs such as AFFILIATE PROGRAMS, all the order processing is handled behind the scenes on your behalf. This includes credit card authorization, order fulfilment, product shipping, and customer service.

Also, there’s no worry about inventory. There’s no staff to hire and pay, no merchant accounts to set up, and no costly and time-consuming application process for licenses and permits to go through.

You have a website which sometimes could be created free of charge. It captures visitors automatically and follows up with them 24 hours a day and 30 days per month for 365 days a year! Your visitors’ names and email addresses are automatically recorded for you and follow-up automatically with a pre-written email marketing campaign.

However, like any ventures earmarked to be successful, you need some planning and consistent effort.

To help you in this effort, here are a few guides you can follow in order to develop good habits for achieving your goals:

PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN

Like any other forms of work, you must have a plan for your Internet business. Set an achievable short term, medium term and long term objectives, prepare a budget and stick to them as far as possible. Carry out periodical checking to determine any deviations from the plan and take the necessary remedial actions.

BE ORGANIZED

You need to download a lot of software, ebooks or PDF books from specific individuals or organizations for your continued education. You’d have a lot of contacts which could be your potential leads or customers. Chances are that you’d belong to many membership sites that require passwords which are first cited in their “Welcome” letters.

You therefore need to have a systematic procedure to keep all these vital information and data in the right and proper folders for quick and ease of retrieving. This would prevent loss of time and undue frustration.

You could create a simple HTML home page of your own with hyperlinks to all the important websites. This could be kept in your desktop for easy access

BE FOCUSED WITH CONCENTRATION:

Although this is a home based business with all the freedom in the world, it’s prudent to have some form of discipline.

Once you’ve decided to sit in front of the computer to start working online, you must stay focused and do not allow any distraction to affect your concentration. Treat it as your business and not a hobby. It’d be nice to stick to a schedule which is also made known to other members of your family so that they’d know when to leave you alone.

However do not get carried away and spend too much time in front of your PC because your loved ones, including your pets also deserve your attention and time.

BE CONSISTENT

You’d be tempted with countless of seemingly very attractive offers and promises from the Web to help improving your business. Do not fall into the trap of some of these promises. Just stay with a handful of strategies that work and stick with them. For example, if you’re submitting articles to drive free traffic to your sites and it’s showing positive dividends, stick to it and continue with this strategy while improving and fine-tuning others.

IF FAILED TRY AGAIN

Like any other conventional businesses, there’d be time when you’d encounter failures and disappointment. Do persevere as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time to see the fruit of you effort although it’d definitely come. Use any failures to your advantage by learning from them. See success in every failure and opportunity in every threat.

“Intention decides what you want but action determines what you get”. Please persevere with your action and don’t give up.

I wish you all the best in your Internet journey towards the continued flow of PASSIVE INCOME!

About The Author:
John Woon (Sung-Liang) is Rubber and Latex Consultant and an Internet marketer. Check this fantastic website to find out how he has ventured into Internet business: 3 Easy Steps To Start
Your Own Home Business Visit his website and blog at: Best Home Based Businesses, and Best Online Business Opportunities

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/for-those-who-are-really-sick-of-their-jobs-working-for-others-1002815.html

Copyright © 2005 John Woon (Sung-Liang) http://www.johnwoon.com

If your doctor advised you to run, jog or walk for the sake of your health, I’d advise you to write for the sake of your wealth…….. from Internet business!

Since I ventured into this very interesting and exciting Internet marketing business, I’ve been writing for some time, something I happen to be enjoying doing. Since the day I learnt to construct my first complete and grammatically correct sentence in English, writing to covey to others my thought, ideas and opinions has been a very fascinating process for me.

For many years friends and business associates have been seeking my input to assess, correct and improve their own writings. Before I knew it, strangers from the Internet have also approached me to help them in copy writing their sales letters and web content.

Having been immersed in the intriguing English language for about 4 decades and after writing articles pertaining to Polymer Technology, punctuated with occasional feature articles, I now find myself in the midst of Internet business that “demands” that I should start to delve into the possibility of writing about Internet-online-home-based-businesses. What a refreshing and welcoming prospect!

Despite my “advanced” age, Internet online business is relatively new and foreign to me compared to Polymer Technology. A considerable amount of effort in the form of research work has to be put in through both primary (mainly interviews) and secondary market research (Library and the Web). The part I enjoyed most was the interviews I held with the so-called Internet “gurus” most of whom are young enough to be my children!

It has therefore been a very challenging, interesting and rewarding experience. Equally, the “gurus” found the interviews utterly amusing, sometimes jaw-dropping with disbelief, having to answer questions on matters that are so basic and simple (to them but definitely not to me!) which they have taken for granted for so long!

You must be agonizing yourself with burning questions in your mind at this juncture wanting to know what writing has got to do with Internet business, that is if you happened to belong to the uninitiated-soon-to-be-obsolete group of individuals. Relax, I’d put you out of your agony this very instant!

You see, I’ve found to my pleasant surprise that one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is by writing articles. Of course, by “driving traffic”, I’m not for a moment suggesting that you rev your car and zoom it aggressively towards some one! “Driving traffic” simply means directing the traffic flow of visitors to your websites. Needless to say, visitors are your potential customers.

Getting your own articles written, distributed and published on the Internet is one of the very best Internet marketing techniques in existence.

Once you have become an author of an article containing quality content, you become an instant authority. When visitors locate and read your article they would obtain some useful information from it. As a result they would most probably appreciate you. When appreciation turns into trust, it is very likely that they would click the link in your article resource box to visit your websites to get more information. The “resource box” is a special space at the end of your article allocated for a short description of the author with the all important URLs of his websites.

Chances of them signing up with you in one of your recommended business opportunities or buy one of your recommended products or services would be greatly boosted.

You get the idea? Of course you do!

The question is how to write the relevant articles which would demand some of your effort and time?

If you have a flare in writing and enjoy doing it, you might decide to write your own articles. You could follow the steps I mentioned above. Otherwise you could join some article cooperatives to get access to private label articles (meaning using others’ articles) or hire someone to write articles for you. Of course you know now that I’ve chosen to do my own writing as it gives me a sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing that my own articles are touching and benefiting many people across the globe!

The following e-mail is one of the many which I have been very delightfully receiving:

==============================================================

Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:37:53 -0800 (PST)

From: ArticleSubmission@linkgrinder.com   Add to Address Book

To: johnwoon@*********

Subject: YOUR ARTICLE SUBMISSION – LinkGrinder.com

Dear John Woon,

Thank you for submitting your article titled ‘Come Blog with Me and Ride the Crest of The Blogging Wave of Internet Business’ to Linkgrinder.com. Your article has been approved and is now in the process of being indexed by the search engines. You should be able to find your article on our website within the next couple days.

Thank you Again!

http://www.linkgrinder.com

==============================================================

Note the e-mail says “…Your article…..is now in the process of being indexed by the search engines…”

Once my article is indexed by the search engines, it means that they (the search engines) love it! The ranking of my website would be enhanced and this in turn would lead to an increase in the popularity of my website.

By virtue of the Internet etiquette, authors quite often allow others to re-print their articles for further publication in other ezines, newsletters, websites etc on condition that the content of the “resource box” be left untouched. This allows the new groups of readers to still be able to click on the authors’ URLs.

Hence, through this simple process, your website could be spread like a virus. Many Internet marketers refer this to as “VIRAL MARKETING”. This is by and large my main objective of writing. The joy I obtain in doing so is incidental but definitely a welcome bonus!

The next question is how can you ensure that your articles will reach the maximum amount of potential web visitors? To do so, you have to submit your articles to Web version of publishers.

I normally submit my articles to Article Directories, Article list/Newsletters and Ezine Directories. This could be done either manually by yourself or get some organizations to do it on your behalf by paying them a monthly fee. It is tedious to do it yourself manually because there are at least hundreds of directories in the Net. However the biggest benefit of submitting your article by hand is that it’s absolutely free.

Organizations who charge a fee for doing this are using software that allows them to submit articles to hundreds, if not thousands of interested parties in an instant just by the click of the mouse.

I hope you now realize the power of writing in creating wealth in your Internet business.

If you’re in Internet business but have not written a single article, it’s high time you did.

If you’re one of those who’re still groping in the dark not knowing whether or when to start your Internet business, please remember the wise words of Bill Gates: “There’ll be two types of business in the years 2000′s : those online… and those out of business!”

About The Author:
John Woon (Sung-Liang) is Rubber and Latex Consultant and an Internet marketer. Check this fantastic website to find out how he has ventured into Internet business: 3 Easy Steps To Start
Your Own Home Business Visit his website and blog at: Best Home Based Businesses, and Best Online Business Opportunities

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/jog-for-your-health-write-for-your-wealth-1002839.html