What is a weblog, better known by its short form, blog? A blog can be as simple as a personal, online diary or as large as a website with a team of editors. The vast majority of blogs are written by one person and intended to be read by friends and family. Others operate like media outlets, featuring news and opinion articles intended for a large audience. Some blogs have a small readership while others are read by hundreds of thousands of visitors per day.

We all have something to say and things to share with others. Blogging gives everyone with access to the internet the opportunity to write about what is important to them. Odds are that you have something you want to say or share with a wider audience, and with a blog, you will become part of a global conversation.

No matter what interests you, you can start a blog about it. So, what is you blog about?

Blogs are open to all on the internet, and easily found through search engines, which gives you the opportunity to make an impact. If having an online diary is what inspires you, then by all means have one.

But writing about current events – what is going on in your town, your region, your country, the world – and adding your personal perspective is most likely to appeal to a broader audience.

Especially if you are writing from a part of the world in which there are few bloggers, your voice and point of view will be an exciting addition to the global discussion.

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Blogging is powerful because of its immediacy. The best blogs are regularly updated; a stale blog is a dead blog. When you start blogging remember this, you have to feed it regularly or the blog monster will die unmourned by readers.

The power of blogging flows from directly connecting with the readers, key to that direct connection is honesty. Readers like and want you to be honest that are why blogs which tell only one side of the story totally fail to connect.

Know your audience. Who do you want to reach? Make your content relevant to that audience. Have a conversation as equals – the comments you get back will rapidly let you know if you really reach your readers.

Here are the top ten tips for a successful blog:

1. Write something every day
2. Don’t write an essay. Be short and snappy
3. Interact with your readers who make comments
4. Don’t try to copy another blog. Make yours unique to you
5. Choose a blog name that is easy to remember and not too long
6. Don’t pander to what you think people want to hear
7. Be controversial, but not for the sake of it
8. Don’t be afraid to offend or be offended
9. Link to your favorite blogs and ask them to link to you
10. Sign up to a Stat Counter which can track how many hits you get

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Your blog is your voice and words on the Web. It’s a place to collect and share information. You might already have a newsletter or an ezine that you send to clients. But a blog is different: it’s quicker to write and easier for people to read. Many find publishing an ezine regularly takes time and effort and requires overcoming writer’s block. It takes two minutes to publish a blog post, and it becomes a good habit. Instead of sending one long newsletter once a month, imagine publishing a short paragraph twice a week that is instantly delivered to your subscribers.

A blog is about more than just putting your thoughts into print. It’s about connecting with and hearing from anyone who reads your work and cares to respond. It’s a two-way conversation. Blogs allow comments that connect you with your readers. You build lasting relationships, and you find out what your customers are saying.

A blog also builds your reputation and establishes your expertise. If your blog provides cutting-edge analysis and information, your reputation grows in direct proportion. Blogging raises your profile faster than almost anything else on the Web. It’s a well-known fact that the search engine “spiders” look for fresh content. Blogs are fresh bread, baked daily. And blogging is a fast track for getting found by people who matter. Journalists increasingly turn to blogs when researching stories - which can be a direct line to blogging speakers with expertise in a niche area.

Plus, as a brand-builder, a blog allows you to directly convey the image you want people to have of your business without having to use costly advertising.

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There’s no magic formula for writing a good blog post, and for every good post a blogger writes, there is sure to be at least one not-so-good one. There are many different kinds of posts, and an exhaustive list is impossible. Instead, what follows is a fairly good formula for writing a post about current events.

The key to any good post is to add value. Some blogs just cut and paste reports from media outlets. This gives readers little incentive to read the blog rather than just reading the story on the website of the news agency that published it. Blogs that add something extra to quotations from media reports, on the other hand, do give readers a reason to visit. With that in mind, here is one possible way to write an interesting post:

Find a subject: Read news websites to find potential subjects. Perhaps you will find a unique story you want to bring to your readers’ attention. Maybe you’ll notice two stories that tie together nicely. Maybe you’ll notice something inaccurate or misleading in a report you read.

Introduce your subject: Begin your post with a brief introduction of the subject and a mention of the story on which you are commenting.

Quote: Include excerpts from the story to which you’re responding.

Analyze: Respond to excerpts as necessary. If you notice something inaccurate, explain what is wrong with the quoted section. Perhaps the quoted text will inspire you to write on other issues. Each case will be different.

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The self-claimed internet gurus have been telling us for years that it is OK to lie when selling products and services. I believe they have, especially if you are one of their affiliates!

First you are showered with pictures of happy people holding a lot of money, or that are standing in front of an extremely large mansion or estate. The best part is that these people are said to be making tons of money without any effort at all!

If you are foolish enough to send them your money you get a really neat website just like it, with all the testimonials and cash money photographs of smiling and happy people too, and you will even get a set of prewritten emails that tell about all of the money you have made as a result of the wonderful product you just bought!

Never mind that you just got started yesterday and that the person who sold you the product just got started last week as an affiliate too. Lies sell.

Who cares? It sucked you in right? But it doesn’t work does it? It doesn’t work because you are not a liar!

I guess to make lots of money online, you must lie. (Ha, ha) I wonder how much John Chow will make in July 2008.

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