Month: May 2008

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Digg! Marketing Giant

For Webmasters and Bloggers, not knowing about Digg is like not knowing how to breathe. Digg is a place where you submit news, articles, videos and other media content. Then, readers of Digg can Digg your submission up or down! If enough people find your submission interesting you might even make the front page of Digg. If you do, get your servers ready, because you will get a ton of traffic!

Once you have created your blog or website, the next thing you need to focus on is bringing in visitors. But with hundreds or even thousands of websites on the same topic as yours, readers will have a hard time finding you unless you make a consistent effort to market your blog or website. This is where Digg comes in. You may have seen Digg icons all around the Internet, and even Dugg articles that you found interesting on a blog. What you might not know is that Digg is a powerful marketing tool, which if used correctly, should automatically bring hundreds, if not thousands of visitors to your Blog.

Start with a niche you feel passionate about. If your blog covers sports opinions, focus on submitting articles to the Sports section of Digg.  If you submit one article a day 7 days a week, you should easily get your first 100 visitors. You have to remember, however, that consistency is key to marketing your blog. You have to submit an article everyday, in order to get your visitors.
In the end, it all comes down to being consistent and passionate about your Blog. If the passion dies, the readership falls. If readership falls, the passion dies. Therefore, try to write out a plan, which you can follow that will guide you at building your readership on the Internet.

Leon Basin is a 23-year-old freelance writer, researcher, poet, webmaster, blogger and author. You can find out more about Leon at Leon’s Blog.

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The Importance of Having a Good Design for Your Site

When an idea enters your head for a website, the common mistake that people make is they want to rush, as fast as they can, to get the site up on the web. They go out and buy the domain name, they get hosting, they write some articles (if that’s the kind of site) and they put the site on the web. Can anyone here see the problem? They did not spend any time on trying to get a good theme for their website. They were in such a rush to get the site online because they think it will make so much money, they spent no time ensuring that the site had a design that was worth anything.

The common mistake that so many people make when they start a new site is they don’t spend the time (or the money) to get a well constructed design for their site. They find the first thing that they think looks decent and they put it up, not really caring if there are some broken links and images that just don’t fit because in their eyes, it’s really only the content on the site that matters. I agree that the content is what matters; however, what is the very first thing that the visitor is going to see when they come to the site? The design.

The first thing that the visitor is going to see when they come to your site is whether the design looks good or if it looks bad. They are not going to read the articles in the first five seconds. They are going to, chances are, look around and either say, “Wow, this looks really cool” or say, “Wow, this looks really bad.” You don’t want to be the second one.

To prevent against that happening, when you do decide on an awesome idea for a site, spend a bit of money and get a nice design. Get one that fits your niche. If you’re talking about the environment and going green, I don’t recommend that you use black and red for the site. I personally don’t think environment when I see that. Also spend some time really getting a good logo designed. Get one that people are going to stop and say, “Wow!” You want to get the ‘wow’ effect. That will cement the site in their head and by doing that, they will come back again and again.

If your site is one that you want to make big then you should be willing to take the time and potentially spend the money on finding a good design. First impressions are key for anything, whether it is a website or anything else for that matter. If you are going out to dinner with a boss, you want to take the time to really look good. The first impression, if good, could mean that you would be given a promotion. It can also mean negative things.

So, take the time and the money to get a good design. I’m not saying spend hundreds of dollars on one. Just spend some time to try and find one that will suit your site. And, if you have the money, spend it on really getting a good design. The first impression will bring people back to your site time and time again. That is, of course, if the content is also good. But, that’s another topic for another time. Get a good design. First impressions are everything.

Jacob is an avid guitar player as well as a biology major in college with hopes of becoming a professor.  When not blogging on The Webmaster Blog, he is over at his political opinion blog.

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Free Webhosts: Should You Still Care About Them? – Part 2

In the first part of this series, I talked about the disadvantages to hosting your site or blog for free. In case you think those statements were a bit too radical, let me confess one thing: I agree with you. I do believe that free webhosts aren’t necessarily the root of all evil.

Here are some reasons why free webhosts shouldn’t be totally ignored by webmasters and bloggers:

1. Free! Does that word ring a bell? We all know it does. Although one might say that all free things have little or no value, that’s not always the case. And let’s not forget that there are times in life when our financial issues are so serious that every single penny we can save makes a huge difference to us — or to our family. Besides, depending on the country you live in, paid webhosting may not be as affordable as it’s usually said to be.

2. Is it harder to make money from sites hosted for free? Probably. Is it impossible? Certainly not. There are still some advertisers who will want to buy ad spots and reviews from such sites. Affiliate marketing is another option to take into consideration, as well as certain pay-per-click programs (AdSense anyone?). Several bloggers and webmasters who use free webhosts are generating decent income from their pages. Some of them will even teach you how to achieve similar results.

3. Many of the complaints about free webhosting are made by people who are unable to follow rules. If you choose a free webhost that doesn’t allow adult content and still you insist in running an adult-oriented portal on their servers, you just aren’t entitled to whine when your site is deleted. It’s really that simple.

4. Unstable people shouldn’t spend their money with paid webhosting. Some individuals suddenly fall in love with a singer or band and proceed to create sites, blogs, photoblogs and forums devoted to their idols. A year later they realise that they couldn’t care less. And then they feel a bit ridiculous for having spent money for reasons that now they admit to be futile. If you recognised yourself in this description — replace “singer or band” by any subject that might inspire sudden yet temporary feelings in you –, free webhosting is the way to go.

5. Free webhosts are great for test sites. By the way, I’m going to post a whole series about test sites here. Subscribe to The WebMaster Blog now and you’ll have my new article series delivered to your favourite feed reader within the next weeks.

If you can think of yet more reasons why free webhosts aren’t that evil after all, please post them on the comment form.

In my next article I will give you some advice on when and how to choose a free webhost.

Karen Zara has been involved with Internet-based projects since 2002. She is the creator of Abaminds, a blog for content producers that you can visit by clicking here.

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Google To Launch “Friend Connect” On Monday

Don’t they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we
’ve heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs for Open Social participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party websites.

read more | digg story

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Hiring and Running Effective Content Writers

When you run one site for yourself, it is very easy to update it yourself and grow it. If you’re running a content site, typically it’s on a topic that you enjoy, so updating it is easy. For instance, I run a blog about politics and it is easy to update because I love politics. However, like a lot of business people, you want to expand your network. Perhaps you decide to take on a second site. And then a third. If you continue to take on sites, you’re going to be stretching yourself thinner and thinner. If you continue to grow, you won’t be able to do all the work without neglecting to work on other sites in your network.

So, what do you do? You are left deciding to either sell off some of the sites or you do what a lot of other webmasters have done: hire content writers. Hiring a content writer can be a very effective method in getting content for your site allowing you to get more work done and, hopefully, get more money in your bank. However, there are some things to look for when you are hiring content writers and some questions to ask yourself. Here’s what I do when I start to hire content writers.

  • Determine what you are looking to gain. Are you trying to publish as many content sites as you can or are you trying to create authority sites that people are going to continue coming back.
  • Based on the above thought, you have to then ask yourself what your goals are. Are you looking for the writer to become a regular writer and replace you, or to just write a few articles a week, leaving you with some work?
  • How big is your budget? Based on what you are looking to do should determine what your budget is. If you want to make a bunch of content sites, you can get away with paying a lot less than if you want to create an authority site.
  • How much do you pay? The numbers that I recommend are a penny or two for small content sites that you are looking to just flip. However, for authority sites, I recommend three or four cents a word minimum. Keep in mind that you are getting what you pay for and if you want your site to be considered an authority, the content needs to be very good.
  • Consider offering a percentage of the earnings rather than paying per article. If you are intending on making the site huge and making a lot, offer either a percentage of the earnings earned on the site or offer to put one of their ad blocks on their article so that they can continue to make money for as long as the site is up.

Hiring content writers can be an incredibly effective method in expanding your network of sites, but you need to ensure that you’ve got the capital and the plan to make the articles that you pay for the best they can be. Hiring a content writer shouldn’t just be posting on a webmaster forum saying “We want to hire people.” Really determine what you want and really try and find the best writers. And, if you don’t have the capital up front, offer to give them an ad spot on the site. They might like that because it means they’ll make money over time.

Content writing is a very simple thing to understand once you ask yourself the above five points. Whenever I hire writers, I sit down and try and determine what I am looking to do. Sometimes, I just want a very simple article written that will appear nice so that I can sell it as fast as possible. However, when I am creating a site that I intend on making very big and an authority site, I only hire the very best. And the budget follows behind that plan. So, consider what your goals are and how much you can afford before you start hiring content writers. Your success will be apparent if you do.

Jacob is an avid guitar player as well as a biology major in college with hopes of becoming a professor.  When not blogging on The Webmaster Blog, he is over at his political opinion blog.

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Free Webhosts: Should You Still Care About Them? – Part 1

For many people, the “free vs. paid webhosting” debate is over. They would just say that there is enough evidence that free webhosting isn’t worth anyone’s time.

Here are some of the reasons why all webmasters and bloggers should prefer paid webhosts over the free ones:

1. Sites and blogs hosted for free make you look unprofessional. Since domain names and paid webhosting are both cheap, if you still choose free alternatives your visitors may see you as a person who shouldn’t be taken seriously.

2. A direct consequence of the aforementioned problem is the fact that many advertisers won’t do business with you unless you have a self-hosted site.

3. There’s no such thing as truly free webhosting. There is always a catch. Undesired advertising is the most common one. On the other hand, many free webhosts won’t allow you to display your own ads on your pages.

4. When you choose a free webhost for your blog or site, your pages aren’t really yours. They belong to the hosting provider. It means that company can do everything they want, which includes the possibility of going out of business without any previous warning. Yes, it means that your site could disappear at any moment.

5. Many free webhosting providers impose tight limits regarding site customisation, coding and file types. As a result, you may not be able to create databases, use javascript, display flash animations and so on.

Could you mention any other reasons why free webhosts aren’t as good as their paid counterparts? If so, please leave a comment.

This is where most articles about free webhosting would end. But this one is going to be different. After all, I’m sure you didn’t come to The WebMaster Blog just to read the same old stuff that you’ve already found on many other blogs. This is why my next post will present an alternative way to view this topic.

Do not miss this series’ second part: click here to subscribe to our feed.

Karen Zara has been involved with Internet-based projects since 2002. She is the creator of Abaminds, a blog for content producers that you can visit by clicking here.

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Effecient Blog Commenting

coComment BannerUsed by webmasters and bloggers alike, blog commenting is a highly used technique of generating traffic. Blog comments usually spark some type of conversation between the blogger and reader, and will even include other readers as well. As there are many blogs to comment on, and many conversations going on at once, sometimes it can get hard to keep track of them all. Yes, there are comment feeds, but they feed you all the comments made across an entire blog, and you probably won’t won’t to follow that. There are also check boxes below the comment box on some blogs that allow you to be Emailed every time someone posts a new comment on that post. These are really great, but not every blog has them. So, what do you do when there’s no “Email Me” check box? The answer is simple; coComment.

coComment is a service that allows you to track your blog comments, and even forum posts. It is available as a Firefox add-on, which makes it all the more easier to use. If you use Internet Explorer, then you’ll have to manually add each comment to your coComment account, which will be very monotonous, and almost a waste of time.

coComment doesn’t just track you comments, it also allows you to share them with friends, and even discover new posts to comment on yourself. I haven’t had any good discoveries there, yet, but who knows, maybe you’ll find some. The sharing feature is pretty cool, too. It can be used like a social bookmarking system, but more privately social, if you know what I mean.

Zac Davis is almost your typical teenage geek.  He has is own blog (Zac’s Blog), and enjoys browsing the “interwebz” for new and exciting things.  Of course, he also likes to write as well.  While not on the computer, he is either at school or playing soccer.

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We’re Just Days Away From Launch

Hi Everyone.

The writers are busy writing and we are just days away from the official launch of The WebMaster Blog!

I’ve had a preview of some of the topics we’ll be covering, and they are great. I promise you, we won’t be publishing more of the same old same stuff you read everywhere else.

I have a special deal for advertisers. For the next 7 days, any advertising spot is only $1 for 30 days. Your ad will start immediately, but the 30 days will not start until we officially launch. Plus, any advertiser who advertises with us in the month of May will automatically become a charter advertiser and will get a 10% discount on all advertising forever!

We have the following ad spots available. All spots are site-wide.

1-486X60 banner in the header ($10 after launch)

6- 125X125 in the sidebar. ($5 after launch)

10- Blogroll links ($2 after launch)

We are also offering a special price for blog reviews. If your blog is on a topic of interest to Webmasters and Bloggers we would love to review you. For just $5 you get a 250-300 word review with 2 links and one image. After launch the price for a blog review will be $25, so this is a very good deal. Only 5 blog reviews available at this price.

If you are interested in advertising, or if you have any questions or comments you can send an email to:

webmaster@thewmblog.com

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We Have Our Bloggers and Authors!

The WebMaster Blog has searched high and low and found five great writers to blog about blogging, the internet, and anything to do with being a master of the web. They are busily creating their masterpieces now.  Come back later this week and see what we have for you!