Google BlogSearch has added a new feature this week thatisn’t actually new on the web, but due to their omnipresent stance, could prove to become the leader.
Sites like TechMeme and Technorati already keep track of what is being discussed on the web, but they both are limited in their scope. TechMeme is somewhat selective in who they track, and Technorati required you to tell them that your blog exists, while Google BlogSearch will eventually find you just from it’s ordinary search checking.
The new feature will be useful for those of you who are trying to blog at least once a day and ened up getting stuck for a subject. Stop by here, see what inspires you, and could quickly be adding to the conversation for that subject on the Web.
One caveat to this, ReadWriteWeb is already reporting a spamming problem has popped up on the system. Teach yourself to look out for these types of posts and avoid discussing them.
Lots of online stores have a link at the bottom of their pages about “affiliate programs”, but what exactly does that mean, and why should you care?
We touched on this briefly in How To Monetize Your Blog, but it seemed worthy of being brought up again.
Essentially you sign up for the program of the site you choose to work with, accept their terms, and then you can begin inserting the links or banner ads on your site. While you earn no money for people just viewing the ads, you do earn money if they click on the ad and then make a purchase from the site.
Due to the need for two actions to take place for you to earn money (the reader clicks the ad, the reader makes a purchase from the site), it can be difficult to trule make a lot of money from this system if you only work at it casually. For affiliate programs to truly start generating a lot of money for a blogger, you need to make a niche site that will mean the visitors to your site are going to be more inclined to click on targeted ads to begin with. (Say you start a blog about wine, it might not make sense to join the affiliate program for car parts, but it would make perfect sense to join one for a site that sells wines)
While you can hunt for sites that offer such programs, a good share of large companies are now using third party companies to run their affiliate programs. You may want to start by looking at companies such as LinkShare.com or CommissionJunction (yes, we belong to LinkShare, but not CJ) that offer you chance to sign up for multiple programs at once, or pick and choose from just a few.
As with any ads you may run on your blog, make sure your blog host allows advertising before you begin inserting any!
The WordPress app for the iPhone and iPod Touch has finally been released.
For those of you with a WordPress powered blog, this will allow you to access your admin section, edit posts, upload photos and even publish new posts to your site from the convenience of your device. You will need to be running firmware 2.0 for the Apple handsets, and your blog will need to be running version 2.5.1 or higher of the blogging software to take advantage of the new app.
The nice thing is you can also manage multiple blogs from just one installation, so this is a dream come true for people with more than one blog as there always seems to be something that needs to be checked on at least one of them.
While typing an entire blog post on one of these devices would certainly not be ideal, it is a perfect management tool and a nice way to make quick updates if necessary. Oh, and best of all… it’s free! So, what are you waiting for? Download it and give it a spin.
I originally did not plan on making this into “Blogging Week”, but it just turned out that way. So, now as I am getting into more advanced subjects related to it, what would you like to know about? Picking a theme? How to do Search Engine Optimization? Blog promotion? Let us know! We’re probably going to take a short break from blogging for a while as this is a general technology blog, but we will be coming back to this, that I promise.
To catch up with what we did this week, here are all the pieces
This is one of the oldest of the free hosting options, but it has very much fallen on to hard times as it has been over run with “splogs”. A splog is a blog with the intention of doing nothing but spreading spam, quite often from using the RSS feeds of other blogs.
This unfortunately has led to a bad reputation for the company, but it is still an excellent beginners platform for people who want to try their hand at blogging. It is not a very robust system, but you can customize the look with templates.
LiveJournal has more of a feeling being an online diary than most other hosts out in the marketplace. It encourages making friends and reading what they post via your Friends page. It is somewhat like an internal RSS system, but it is limited to being kept inside of the site.
Like Blogger, it is a good place for one to start off and get their feet wet in the idea of blogging, but it is not a solution for someone that wants to grow their blog. They do offer different levels of membership with free journals supported by advertising, or you can pay for an ad-free account which also gives you more options and more storage for photos.
This can be somewhat confusing, but we will try our best to explain it. WordPress.com is for people who wish to use the WordPress software without having to find their own hosting account and maintain the updates. This is not to be confused with WordPress as a blogging platform you use on your own web site.
The WordPress.com version is for people who are more serious about blogging, but you will be limited by in your number of plugin choices, number of template selections and they also do not allow you to put any form of advertising on your blog.
The problem that all three of these options share is the odd domain names you will be stuck with. For instance, your WordPress address would be http://username.wordpress.com: it is unwieldy, unattractive and just not a good idea for your site if you want to blog seriously. If you have any intention of taking your blog further than your friends and family, then a unique domain name will be a must, and this is something you usually can only get by going with a dedicated web host.
If you still want to just get your feet wet, or you are only intested in blogging for your friends and family, the three listed above are a good start, or you can choose from one of the many other free blog hosts out in the market place.
We’ve discussed “What Is A Blog“, but now comes the question of where you should start one.
This is an extremely personal question that everyone has to answer for themselves, but there are many reasons why a person would want to begin one. Some people do it to express themselves, others do it fill a gap they perceive in their area of interest and others do it to attempt to make money through monetizing their site.
Most blogging experts will tell you that if you don’t start blogging for one of the first two reasons, the third will be impossible. I tend to agree with them, because if you are blogging about something you don’t care about, then it’s going to show in your writing. There have been many stories written about bloggers making a lot of money, but every one of them has been writing about something they care about and the monetization success came along later as a bonus.
Mind you that thousands of new blogs start every day, so this is another strike against the idea of starting one with the idea of making a lot of money. You will have to do a lot of work to get people to find your blog, so you will be much better off doing it for friends & family, or talking to people who share your specific interests.
Again, this is a question you have to answer for yourself, but if you aren’t writing about something you love, then it is going to be a very long slog to success.
Lots of online stores have a link at the bottom of their pages about “affiliate programs”, but what exactly does that mean, and why should you care?
The 
I originally did not plan on making this into “Blogging Week”, but it just turned out that way. So, now as I am getting into more advanced subjects related to it, what would you like to know about? Picking a theme? How to do Search Engine Optimization? Blog promotion? Let us know! We’re probably going to take a short break from blogging for a while as this is a general technology blog, but we will be coming back to this, that I promise.
WordPress
We’ve discussed “
