Friday, April 14, 2006

Take Part in Blog Traffic Exchange Communities

Author: Sheila Ann Manuel Coggins

For bloggers who wish to gain more readers, there can never be enough ways to promote one's blog. One way that blog owners market and promote their blogs is through taking part in blog traffic exchange communities like BlogExplosion (http://www.blogexplosion.com/) and BlogClicker (http://www.blogclicker.com/).

If you are a blog owner who wishes to try this route, it's easy (and free) to join these blog traffic exchange communities: Just visit the site, sign up, confirm your account, add your blog to the member directory/registry and then start visiting other members' blogs.

Often, you can add more than just one blog per account.

In order for you to maximize your membership, it's good to understand the general idea of how these communities work. Basically, you need to earn 'credits' in order to get blog traffic exposure. These credits are often gained by visiting other members' blogs. Some communities also offer 'credits' for a fee. However, when testing out a new blog traffic exchange community, it's probably best not to pay for 'credits' in the beginning. It's good to begin by visiting other blogs first. Then, when you're happy with that community, you can show support by buying credits and/or purchasing advertising space.

When you have enough credits, your blog becomes eligible for promotion. Usually, a link and/or graphic to your blog will be shown on the main site and/or in fellow members' blogs. This is how other people find your blog.

Of course, the more members there are in the community, the more potential visitors. So, if you are part of a blog traffic community, it's good to promote the communities you belong to as well.

Besides, when you promote the community through a referral system, you get more credits too.

Just remember that even though people may visit your blog through these traffic exchange communities, it doesn't mean that they will always do so. That's why it's important to make sure that every visitor to your blog must find reasons to return.

About the Author: Sheila Ann Manuel Coggins, aka Shai, is an internet enthusiast since 1997. She is a keeper of web logs, journals, and web sites. She hosts a podcast (Shai in 60 Seconds) and a video blog (FreshWave.TV). She is one of the co-owners of the b5media blogging network, and she is also an online instructor.

Microsoft Presents The New Samsung's Q1

Microsoft on Thursday April 13, 2006 unveiled details for ultramobile personal computers (UMPCs), a new category of mobile computing devices that features small, lightweight, carry-everywhere hardware designs coupled with the full functionality of a Windows PC and a choice of input options, including enhanced touch-screen capabilities.

Samsung's Q1, which debuted at the CeBit show in Hannover, Germany, has a 7-inch 800-by-480-pixel TFT touchscreen, is powered by a 900MHz ultra-low-voltage Celeron M processor with 512MB of RAM, and has a 40GB hard disk. Samsung says the European model, due in May, will cost about $1,200.

Credit: Microsoft

We Blog, Thus We Feel More Real

Author: Giovanni Busco

What blogging means? It comes from creating, maintaining a weblog, or even publishing an article or a comment on an existing blog.

People's ability and desire of organizing ideas and contents in a specific way are the main reason for the exploding success of internet blogs.

If you wish to run your own blog, the process of starting one is easy and fast, and many times absolutely free. You go, for example, to www.blogger.com, http://www.wordpress.org/, or http://www.blogcity.com/, and using their web-based interfaces in a few minutes your blog is online, and you can start updating it, with traditional computers, or even with a mobile approach, using hand-held devices or web-enabled mobile phones.

Everybody can potentially express him/herself through this powerful global media. Information in the internet is largely available, and through blogging, you can creatively organize all that information, and creating new one.

It’s interesting to report some comments from Steve Pavlina, very well-known blogger on this issue: "I’m hugely optimistic about the future of blogs and blogging. Blogs are quickly changing the face of media, injecting a much needed dose of truth...
… Typical newscasters look ridiculously phony when compared to typical bloggers. I think this will ultimately force changes in mainstream media. They’ll have to change as they begin losing business. The advertising dollars are already flooding into blogs, and that’s only going to increase".

Well, the magic with blogs is that they tend to pick up traffic at a very high speed, and this can result in very fast earnings for many, courageous internet entrepreneurs.

About the Author: Giovanni Busco is a web/business consultant, strongly interested in internet communication and internet marketing.