Many businesses believe they want a blog to increase traffic to their website. But, the art of blogging is not a part time event. There needs to be careful consideration taken with the blog and a few questions answered before the blog is created!

1. Why are you starting the blog? This question is important, because starting a blog just for the purpose of traffic will not get you the traffic you want. Blogs take time to establish a place on the Internet and a blog full of self linking posts will not get you ranked by the search engines.

2. Do you have the time? Blogging takes time. Many businesses believe that a few words here or there will do the trick. That is simply not the case. A blogger for a business needs to keep the blogs current and up to date on a daily basis. There are no vacations from blogging, no Saturday’s off. The more the blog is updated with REAL information, the higher the ranking will soon become.

3. Do you know how to write for the Internet? Writing for the Internet is not like writing memo to a colleague or a note to your friend. There are rules and tricks that help make the content relevant and useful to the blogs traffic rating. If you can not write for the web, who can?

4. Do you know what blogs are for? Knowing the art of the blog can help a business thrive. But, when a business wants to start a blog and does not have any previous knowledge about blogging, the results can actually harm the mother site. Learn about blogs first and start the blog later.

5. Are you ready? Blogging is a job. You already have a full time job. When you are ready to start that blog, taken into consideration the real time you have and the real knowledge you can provide to the reader. You business blog will need to give the reader information from an expert level on your business topic. Can you do that alone? Or, do you need to hire someone to blog for you?

Think heartily about that blog before linking it to your main business site. The blog needs to be just as professional and helpful as the site is to the visitor. If not, the blog may hurt the business more than help it!

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Writers have all faced the block. In fact, I am facing one right now. How do you write about writing tips when you have writer’s block. Well, I knew I had to do this so I decided to perform some of the old tried and truisms.

One thing that has always helped me is to take a drive. Nowadays this might seem to be environmentally irresponsible, but when the words just won’t drop, nothing is more helpful to me than a drive. A teacher of mine once told me that the method of performing a task that you really are not consciously doing helps to clear your mind.

Now, I don’t mean to say that I was not conscious while driving but as I whipped around those well-known corners, my mind was in a sort of hypnotic state. Does this sound a little crazy? Too bad. It works.

Other writers have told me that they turn on their favorite music, and blot out all other thoughts. Some tap dance, take a walk, or do deep breathing exercises.

One rather eccentric writer friend of mine told me that he would go to the refrigerator, stare lovingly at the contents, and then go back to his writing chores. God knows why this works. But, it did, for him. I think every writer has their own way of writing.

And in the end of it, we all find out own way of kicking the block. No matter how weird, how unique, how totally over the edge, writer’s block can not keep a good writer down. We will find a way around those bricks and come out fighting for those next few words.

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When affiliate marketing is going to be a major money maker for your blog, the most important idea is to choose the right niche for optimal money making. The niche is the meaning or idea driving your blog. Even though niches can vary widely there are a few niches that pay much better than others in terms of affiliate marketing.

The Mortgage Company. Mortgage companies need new and fresh leads all the time. This is especially important when it comes to the diving real estate market and the potential recession headed our way. Mortgage company affiliate programs pay per lead, in most cases, which means to the blogger that only the click through is needed to fulfill the affiliate contract. Many mortgage companies will pay in excess of $50.00 per lead. This high rate of pay means there will be many blogs competing for the same $50.00 lead. You blog will have to be THE best!

The Education Company. Education is a money making business. College educations and paying for those educations is at the heart of the education affiliate programs. These programs are set up to pay the marketer when a lead chooses to receive additional information about the college or the related education program.

If you do not currently have a blog, all you need to do is choose from only of the millions of lucrative niches and watch the money filter in as your traffic increases. Affiliate marketing can be a tough game to win, but once the traffic is established to your blog, the money will be well worth the extra time. To ensure a better chance of success, choose an affiliate niche that you understand well enough to produce the content for the blogs on your own. Having a connection with a topic show authenticity to your readers.

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The beginning days, weeks and months of a blog are crucial to building a reader following and increasing blog traffic. Unfortunately, many beginning bloggers fail to understand the importance of a focused point and meaning to their blogs. The “niche” is the center concept of the bloggers blog and is more important than any marketing strategy when it comes to gaining a reader following.

A niche is simply a small or finely tuned keyword or theme. When creating a blog, many bloggers find themselves writing day in and day out about the events of their personal and business lives. This is not the purpose or aim of a successful blog. A successful blog needs to have one, fine tuned thought that is expressed over and over again.

When creating your blog find one thought to center the content around. If you are interested in health and medical matters, writing about this field as a whole will give little focus to your blog. Instead, concentrate on one center thought. Health 2.0, for instance, is a very popular concept right now. A blog centered on Health 2.0 is a niche blog.

After finding that niche, you will need to write about that niche and only about that niche. Every blog entry created will need to be somehow linked to the niche industry. This provides the reader with a constant stream of information. There is nothing worse than a potential return reader finding a blog posting through a search engine on your niche and clicking on the link only to be taken to a blog that does not offer the same information. Blog readers will rarely search your archive for the information they are looking for, they will simply search another blog.

The importance of the niche when blogging can not be stressed enough. Readers want to know that the niche blog they subscribe to will consistently provide new and informative information on that niche. Straying from that center theme can cost you readers and blog views.

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When choosing to begin a blog either for business or pleasure, the first decision you will have to make is in regards to the blogging platform on which you will write. The three top blogging platforms currently include: Wordpress, Blogger, and Typepad. Each of these platforms is quite different and each offer a little something different to the blogger.

Wordpress is, by far, the most utilized blogging platform. Wordpress is free to use and can be easily modified and changed to the liking of the blogger. With the use of themes, a Wordpress blog can look and feel just like an online web page without the extra cost. This ease of customization is at the heart of Wordpress popularity.

Blogger, another top blogging platform, is a great choice for the beginning blogger. Unfortunately, this blogging platform leaves much to be desired on the side of customization. With slower than other FTP access and limited control over the look, feel and functionality of the blog, serious bloggers often skip Blogger for a more advanced platform.

Typepad is a blogging platform that is aimed at the “premier” blogging crowd. Very similar in functionality to Wordpress, Typepad is certainly a choice for the business minded blogger. But, unlike Wordpress, Typepad requires a $4.95 monthly fee to maintain an active blog.

The choice you make in blogging platforms is a crucial decision. When beginning a blog, you will want to make sure the blogging platform you choose is one that you are compatible with and one that you completely understand. Reviews, experiences and suggestions online can give a blogger an inside look at the performance of a blogging platform over time. The better you understand the blogging platform and the long term goals of your blog, the better decision you will be able to make.

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