Encouraging, Inspiring, and Equipping Christian Writers and Self Publishers

Getting Started (or RE-STARTED) Blogging!

August 9, 2009

The image “http://www.cindyrushton.com/images/Cindy2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Blogging. Ready to begin your own blog, but totally overwhelmed? Not sure where to begin or even what to do? Have no idea of how to get started (or restarted) on the right track? Well, dear friend, this article is FOR YOU! Let me take you by the hand and share some ideas that have worked for me…

1. Get a vision. First things first. Who are you? What are YOU all about? What is YOUR message? When others come to you, what do they ask you? Take some time to really think this one out.  Your blog will only be a success when you find YOUR voice. Pull apart and get a vision. Keep your blog simple, clear, uncluttered, and focused. Stick to who you are. Don’t change up every day. Don’t add in content that does not go along with your message. Get a vision for what you are to be all about and be ONLY that.

2. Set it up right.
Don’t take short-cuts. If you want to build a successful business, invest in your “home on the web.” This is not an area to skimp by or put off. Read more

Time to Start a Blog for Profit!

April 24, 2009

http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/MomWriting.jpgAn online presence is important these days for whatever enterprise you engage in. to connect with a wide variety of people there is no bigger forum than the Internet. If you are looking for a way to show off your expertise and also make a little money while doing it, consider starting a blog.

What is a Blog?

A blog is actually an online journal of sorts. With a blog you can upload daily posts about anything that you want. Some people create personal blogs as a way to keep in touch with family members. Pictures, videos and other information are uploaded so your loved ones are current with what is going on with you.

Here we are going to talk about business blogs. This is a blog that you begin to attract traffic in order to sell products or services. To be interesting to others, your blog will need to:

•    Have updated content for visitors
•    Be marketed to draw traffic
•    Register with search engines so it can be found in the rankings Read more

Easy How-To’s: Add a Button to your Sidebar

January 24, 2009

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Sidebar buttons are a quick and easy way to affiliate with, promote, or endorse a company or website you believe it.

How you add a button to your sidebar depends in large part on the type of site you have.  For example if you have a WordPress blog then it’s going to be a different process than if you have a HTML site.

Here it is in a nutshell –

First you’ll want to click on the button image and save it on your desktop.  If you’re using Blogger then you’ll have to upload the image into an image host like Photobucket or Flickr.
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Help with WordPress Blog Look

December 30, 2008

The image ?http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/CoffeeLaptop.jpg? cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Hey!

Sorry to be SO QUIET. I have been swamped with getting ready for the holidays, then I have taken family time the past two weeks—my soldier is HOME! :) We look like a family of geeks. We came to Elisabeth’s coffee shop to visit and the WIFI is soooo good that we have to succumb to the temptation to get online for a bit. LOL Read more

The Biggie: How to “Properly” Exchange Links with Others

December 3, 2008

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Incoming links offer your business website two main benefits.  Incoming links increase your website traffic which of course means your conversions and sales increase.  Incoming links also increase your search engine ranking because search engine spiders from all the search engines including MSN, Yahoo, and Google, all use incoming links as part of their ranking and indexing algorithm.

One of the best and most popular ways to increase incoming links is to exchange links with other relevant and trustworthy businesses.  Relevancy and trustworthiness are both important not only to maintain and increase your own website credibility but also with search engine rankings.  Links which come from websites which are relevant and trustworthy have more weight than non-relevant links.  Read more

Writing for SEO Without Losing Readability

October 30, 2008

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Copywriting is one significant factor when you want to achieve excellent search engine ranking. Yet, a lot of times website owners think that all that they have to do is to incorporate keywords in page tags and include some keyword mentions in their articles. While SEO copywriting not exceedingly hard, writing for search engines is more complex than that.

“Search engine optimization copywriting” or SEO, is a method of writing viewable or easily scanned text on your web page which is very acceptable and readable for the internet user as well as targets certain or exact search terms, having the purpose of ranking high in search engines.
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How to Make Your Blog More Appealing to Your Readers

October 28, 2008

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Every blogger who earns income from their blog knows that the only way you can make money is by getting and keeping the traffic coming. Without your readers, you wouldn’t be making money at all.

There are lots of ways to get them there, but the question is – how do you keep them returning? If a reader isn’t impressed by your blog at all, then they’ll leave your blog, never to return again.

With them goes their blog’s traffic that you could’ve benefited from if they’d linked to you. Here are some tips to make your blog appealing enough to keep the traffic there to earn you some money.

Evaluate Your Design!

The most common mistake some bloggers make is in their blog’s design. Blog readers not only look for interesting and informative content – they also want to come to an inviting space to read it. Read more

Basics of SEO that You Need to Know

October 25, 2008

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Today, even the smallest company uses the Internet as their main tool in building a customer base, keeping in contact with their clients and as their most basic means of advertising.

Designing a company web site is cheap and effective, not to mention essential because the world wide web is the only medium that offers instantaneous information access to millions of users around the globe.

Any web developer worth his salt should know about search engine optimization or SEO.

This is the key towards building an effective web site that would get a lot of hits and visitors. A web site that nobody visits is useless so the challenge lies in leading Internet users to visit your web site.
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Setting Up a Twitter Feed on Your Blog

October 22, 2008

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Twitter seems to be a major buzz word and you know what? It should be because it is a good way to reach your audience and gain a whole new audience. You can use your blog to garner the power of Twitter for more traffic, sales, and valued relationships.

We already know when blogs are optimized correctly they are great for bringing in traffic and generating sales. That is why you need to hook up with Twitter. While Twitter is not a full fledge blog, it is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to instantly let people know what it is that you are doing.

You can set up your blog with a simple feed that will help you optimize and create the results you want to get from both your blog and Twitter. Considering the many ways that you can feed your blog to Twitter, you can talk to people all over the world in a way that you never could before.

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Blogs are GREAT for Search Engine Optimization!

October 11, 2008

The image “http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MomOnline.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Originally conceived to be something like an online journal for individuals has become yet another tool businesses can use to market themselves online. Web logs or blogs are now being used not just for the sheer purpose of writing, but also as means SEO (search engine optimization) experts use to increase a website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).

 

An interesting thing about keeping and maintaining a blog (also known as blogging) is that anyone can blog. What will make a blog more successful than most is simply a keen sense of its target readership. Of course, it will not harm the blogger (a person maintaining a blog) to possess a few basic skills navigating the Internet and creating links to other websites and blogs.

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