By Nicole Dean

More and more moms are getting into the blogging scene. Some for fun, some for profit, and some for both. Why not make money while you’re blogging about your favorite stuff, right?

It’s easier than ever to get started blogging. But the first thing you need before you begin is an idea for your domain name.

What is a domain name?

It’s the “www (dot) SOMETHING (dot) com” that people will type in to get to your blog. It’s like your address.

How do you Know What is a Good Domain Name?

There are some standards for what is a “great” domain name verses one that makes you wonder what on earth that person was thinking!

In order to help you to come up with a great web name that you’ll love for years, here are my unbreakable rules for choosing a domain.

1. No hyphens. Avoid dashes and hyphens. I’ve been there. Done that. Regret it to this day.

2. No numbers. Do I spell it out “seven” or is it the number “7??

3. Avoid words that are difficult to spell. Although I once was really excited about using a domain with the word “catalyst” in it — I found that no one could spell the darned thing.

4. Domain should end in .com. I don’t bother with other endings like .info or .biz. People tend to type in .com at the end of everything, so it’s usually best to stick with a .com ending.

5. Domain must NOT have any copyright names in it. I would not recommend using “Starbucks”, “Disney”, or any other company name in your URL or you may get a “cease and desist” email. Yes, even though you’re starting as a little mom blogger, eventually you might get huge. So, it’s best to plan for success in advance and avoid using trademarks in your URL.

6. If I’m looking to sell your blog down the road, it must be generic enough. For instance, I wouldn’t buy “NicoleKnowsFootball.com” to talk about my favorite football team if I planned to sell the site ever, because I’d have to find someone named Nicole to buy it.

And my big, bad unbreakable rule.

7. It must pass the Oprah test.

What exactly is the Oprah test? Well, I picture Oprah saying it out loud. “Today I have with me, Nicole Dean, author of Blah blah blah and owner of NicoleontheNet.com”. Is it memorable? Easy to spell?

You can’t do that with MyNumber1-BestHome-Remedy-Treatments4New-Mothers.net.

Why is this Important?

A difficult domain is actually wasted opportunity and wasted traffic slipping through your fingers. If you’re promoting via audio or video (maybe on podcasts or on YouTube) – you need a domain that is EASY to remember. It has to make it into the person’s ears and to his brain and stick. Heck, even if you run into an old college friend and say “Stop by my site www (dot) somethingcool (dot) com” – you’ll want her to remember long enough to actually come to your blog, right? So, make it simple. Make it memorable. And you’ll be glad.

Plus, honestly, it’s a credibility issue. Would you really buy something from MyNumber1-BestHome-Remedy-Treatments4New-Mothers.net? I hope you wouldn’t even think of getting out your credit card for a site like that. SCARY. And would you feel comfortable referring it to your friends? Not a chance.

How do you get a domain name of your very own? 

You can get a domain at www.momwebs.com which is also my recommendation for Web Hosting. As you sign up for your domain, you can get hosting at the same time. And… they’ll even set up your blog for you for only $10. Plus, there’s a phone number that you can call if you have any questions.

With all of that help, there’s nothing stopping you from setting up your first blog.

I hope this has been helpful. And, I really look forward to seeing YOU on Oprah!

Nicole Dean is co-owner of Mom Webs Hosting – www.MomWebs.com where you’ll find the host with the most. It offers everything a mom blogger needs – reliability, unlimited hosting, and customer service that never makes you feel intimidated — all at a price you can afford. MomWebs.com was created to help overcome the technical hurdles that may be preventing moms from sharing themselves with the online world. Check out the free training at MomWebs.com

High-traffic content website

If you’re still up in the air about what type of website is best for your small business, or you’re toying with including a blog, here are a few facts that may help you decide.  

Despite all the hype, a blog is really nothing more than a website. Essentially a blog is a website with an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order.  

Blogs or “weblogs” as they were originally called, trace their roots to online journaling and community building efforts. However, used as a business tool, blogs are uniquely positioned to make you money. Here’s why.  

The structure of blogs is perfect for revenue producing efforts.  

1. Blog sites tend to be heavy on content and their ease of use makes it easy to add updates.
2. Regardless of which blogging platform you use, you’ll be able to produce a content-based site with a series of well-targeted pages.

Why does this matter? It’s critical because search engines love content. Textual content keeps search engine spiders well fed and persuades them to visit again and again. Google, Yahoo and MSN reward information-packed sites with better positioning in search results and index these sites quickly.  

Blogs have an advantage when it comes to traffic.  

Effective blog use produces high search engine rankings and, thus, great traffic levels. Traffic is a key to profitability. Your site won’t make you money if no one sees it. The traffic advantage blogs enjoy with search engines is one of the main reasons to consider choosing a blog for your website or adding one to your existing static site.  

You’re probably thinking you can just add a lot of content to your static site and accomplish the same objective. But you should know that adding fresh content to a static site could be more of a hassle, depending on your setup.  

Ease of Use Makes Blogs Easier to Update.  

Unless you manage your own site, adding fresh content might mean writing the content (or paying to have it written), converting it to HTML, inserting the content into the static page and then uploading the page to the server again. Unless you are using a very easy site manager, it’s probably going to take less effort to add new content to a blog.  

If it’s complicated to add fresh content, you’re less likely to add updates as often as you should. Blogging solves this problem. All major blog platforms allow users to create new “posts” and to add them to the blog with a few simple mouse clicks.

There are two other benefits of the blog platform: 

1. The comment feature makes it easy for site visitors to providefeedback.
   

   RSS symbol

2. The RSS “real simple syndication” feature lets visitors sign up to get your feed when your site is updated.

This combination can make your blog sticky, making return visitors far more likely. That traffic, when coupled with the right moneymaking strategy can produce great results.  

If your business website is strictly static, you should consider adding a blog. With a blog’s proven traffic-generating advantages, you may be able to create a profitable, high-traffic site that requires minimal effort.  

In upcoming posts, we’ll talk about ways to outsource the content creation for your “hungry” blog. So join our list or sign up for our RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss anything. And leave a comment below to let us know if you found this post helpful.

Special Guest Post by Sierra Miller from JobDescriptions.net

A small business blog can be a fantastic way to boost revenue. The most successful ones ensure that they do this by adding quality content. This may sound like a simple enough formula, but defining quality content can be confusing. So, how exactly can you tell if the content is considered “quality”, and how do you find it?

Quality Standards Begins with the Reader

Producing quality content begins with the audience. Keywords are, of course, an essential part of driving traffic. However, there has to be a demand for the information you are posting.

Make sure that keywords have the potential to generate traffic. This means that internet users are searching for the information. Knowing the demographic and what they want to learn about is essential.

A good way to do this is to browse forums related to the subject material. Through diligent observation, a small business blog owner can identify topics that generate interest.

Create Content with a Purpose

High quality content gives the reader information they can use. A common mistake that some blog owners make is that they fail to offer the reader value. What does value mean? It is the process of including information that the reader can use, for free.

Each blog post should be between two hundred and four hundred words. Since there is a lot of room for variation in the length of the post, it can be helpful to know what you want to tell the audience in advance.

An easy way to do this is to think about each post as if it is answering a question. For example, a small business blog about appliances may tell the reader how to unstop a dishwasher clog. Alternatively, the topic may be how to make your refrigerator more energy efficient. The possibilities are limitless.

Write Well

A small business blog needs for the reader to feel like they are gaining expert knowledge. This makes the blog more credible, and therefore more likely to make money. For this reason, blog posts need to be well written and flow naturally. Mistakes in grammar and spelling, keyword “stuffing”, or incorporating the use of keywords poorly can create a bad impression.

Keyword density should be between 2% and 5%, as long as the post makes sense. Remember, the goal of a small business blog is to satisfy the reader and create a demand. If no one visits, then there is very little opportunity for performance.

This article was contributed by Sierra Miller from JobDescriptions.net, a complete job description guide. Learn more about managing a small business from her business administration job description.

Typically, I don’t promote big-ticket items this close to Christmas, but I don’t want you to miss out on a special deal guaranteed to help you with your blog that MaxBlogPress says it will never repeat.

MaxBlogPress is offering five of its hottest products for less than it usually charges for one of these blog tools, but there’s a catch. This deal with savings of 70 percent off the regular price is only available until TOMORROW (Dec. 14) at midnight.

I almost missed this one myself. I took a look at MaxBlogPress’ Ninja Affiliate this summer and added it to my wish list. The company describes this tool as a lethal affiliate tracking tool for WordPress bloggers. More recently, they MaxBlogPress introduced its Subscribers Magnet, a product that increases your ability to build a list with several features that fill in the visitors name and email automatically, so all your visitors have to do is click the submit button.

Other tools include:

• The WordPress Wizard 2.0, a coaching program with input from some of the most successful bloggers around - ProBloggers like Darren Rouse and Chris Garrett.
• The $365K Blog Traffic Formula
• RSS Email 2.0

 Grab your copy of the  MaxBlogPress Christmas Deal.

I am planning a lot of great things for the readers of the Savvy Marketing Secrets Blog going forward. So join my list or my feed. Also, please leave a comment and tell me your greatest concern for your business for 2011.

I just took a look at the August issue of  Website Magazine.com  where I found something that really fits the topic we have been talking about this week. Nick Stamoulis, President and Founder of Brick Marketing a SEO and SEM company, described five WordPress plugins that will make your SEO easy.

If you can still find that issue, you may want to grab it. But just in case it is no longer available, I’ll repeat Stamoulis’ recommendations here:

1. All in One SEO Pack – Nick suggests that you grab this one first because it lets you write custom meta information for all your posts and pages. It has been downloaded nearly five million times and is considered the industry standard.
2. Contextual Related Posts – This post will display related blog posts at the end of each published post by seeking those with relevant tags. I didn’t know about this one. I’ve been doing this manually so I’m going to look for this one right away. It helps in two ways — with internal linking and to keep visitors on your site longer.
3. SEO Smart Links – This plugin interlinks your posts and pages as you write and publish, which is also a great way to strengthen the SEO elements of your site.
4. WP-DB-Backup -  This may seem more important for security than SEO, but as Nick explains, if you lose all your value content, it will really set your SEO efforts back. Using this plugin you can email a backup file of your entire database anytime you want. With this backup, you can get your blog back up quickly if something should happen.
5. Google XML Sitemaps – Most webmasters know how important it is to create Google SML Sitemaps to help the search engine find your content quickly. This plugin lets you update your sitemap automatically as you add new content.

Some premium themes come with some of these plugins built-in, so you might want to check before you try to add these plugins.

 Nick makes another very important point. While it is important for you to optimize your WordPress blog, it is vital that you create your content for humans not search engine robots. Your blog may get a quick boost with SEO, but it’s long term success depends on the quality and value of your content for your site visitors.

WordPress Plugins for Affiliates

By now you’ve noticed that a lot of static websites are adding a blog. It may also seem that the mere addition of a blog is pushing the traffic of those sites ahead of yours. But before you add a blog, you should know why blogging can be good for search engine marketing.

It’s not the addition of a blog, but the constant activity that helps your website gain in the rankings. Most successful bloggers post at least 3 to 5 times a week and search engines love fresh, relevant content. Search engines especially put greater weight on blogs that are updated frequently, have good focus and stay on topic.

Exactly what is Blogging?

Before you commit to blogging – it takes a lot of time – you should understand what blogging is. Blogging is a little like keeping an online journal. It’s a page or pages where you put down your thoughts about a specific topic.

To add content often you will write a lot about that topic, so it’s important to consider your interest in the subject. Lack of true interest in a topic is why you see so much burnout among bloggers.

Optimize Your Blog for Search Engine Marketing

You need to optimize your blog for search engines, if you want it to play a key role in your search engine marketing. This means, making sure your keywords are in your title tags and sticking to posts about your keywords. People who read this blog regularly may  that know this is one of my struggles.

Think of your blog post titles as headlines so you can catch the reader’s attention. And make sure your title will show up in the search engines for the keywords you want. Your headlines will begin to show up in search engine queries as your blog posts are archived.

If you optimize your blog correctly and you also are creating fresh content regularly, then you will see good page rank over time. Once you achieve this you will be able to help your other websites or blogs to get quality links.

All you have to do is to have some permanent links in your sidebar to the particular website or blog that you need to have crawled and ranked. As long as it has relevant content you can use your blog this way.

So if you optimize your blog and keep it updated with fresh, relevant content, you will be able to use it as an search engine marketing tool for other relevant websites you own. It’s a great way to let something you enjoy — your blog – help you grow your virtual real estate.

Yesterday, we talked about the importance of blogging regularly – something that some bloggers find difficult.

To avoid this challenge, it can help to adopt strategies to keep you on track. Here are five tips designed to make your blogging easier.

1. Write your blog content in advance and save it so that it’s ready to be posted everyday. When you have time to write, try to write enough blog content for several days or for the whole week.

With WordPress you can load your posts and schedule them for publication at set times. This means that on those days when you do not have the time to write, you can still post fresh content on your blog.

2. Blog about a wide range of things that relate to your niche. Try to understand the needs of your blog visitors and write posts that will help them succeed. Don’t just focus on the main topics in your niche. Dig deeper to identify the sub-niches and write about those as well. Using this strategy, you should never run out of ideas.

3. Invite your blog visitors to leave comments relating to your posts and your niche. This is an easy way to get unique content on your website. The more you encourage your visitors to interact, the more unique content your blog will offer and the more engaged your visitors will become.

4. Do some research to find key questions and issues that people in your niche are interested in, and provide content that addresses those questions on your blog. One way to do so is to visit the blogs and websites of people who comment on your posts.

Look in the relevant forums for hot topics that people are discussing, and weigh in to the discussion in the forum and continue the dialogue on your blog. You might also link your blog visitors back to the full discussion in the forum.

5. To save time and boost your productivity, you may want to use PLR content which you should rewrite to fit your writing style and the needs of your audience. If you fail to make the PLR content unique, search engines may penalize your blog for duplicate content. Think of PLR as a shortcut that will allow you to boost your productivity.

Blogging regularly may seem like a lot of work and it may take time to get the results you desire. But use these tips and stick with it. Keep in mind that the more you blog, the more traffic you will drive to your website.

These are my ideas. What strategies work for you? Share your tips by leaving a comment.

Last time we talked about ways to monetize your blog. It’s important to know that there are mistakes you should avoid because they could keep your blog from being profitable.

While blogging is a powerful tool for increasing traffic to your website and boosting your online profits, these mistakes could cause your blog to fail.

1. 1. Failure to blog on a regular basis. Blogs can be powerful in driving traffic to a website if they have high quality and unique content which makes search engines visit them and index the content. People looking for information on search engines that relate to your blog’s keywords will be directed to your website, bringing you high volumes of traffic.

2.  Some bloggers use a variety of short cuts that can mean a lack of useful and captivating information.  It is important for your blog to have information which your visitors will enjoy and find useful. You also want to make your blog unique and attractive by adding interesting images and other features your blog visitors will enjoy.  By providing information people can’t easily find elsewhere, you will attract a lot of visitors, Some will bookmark your blog and visit frequently. The increased traffic should results in higher sales.

3.  Lack of keywords in your blog categories and blog content. This is the most powerful way to increase traffic to your website. You must know and use all the keywords that relate to your niche when posting on your blog. If you have some headings for categories on your blog, make sure that you use your keywords on the headings of these categories as this increases the visibility of your blog on search engines.

4.  Failure to increase the earning potential of  your blog. If you want to earn money with your blog, you must sell your own products and services on your blog. You can also identify affiliate programs that match your niche and sell these affiliate products. All you need to do is to add your affiliate links on your blog. You can review these affiliate products and include the keywords in your blog content. You can also increase the money you earn from your blog by adding some Google Adsense adverts on your website. When someone clicks on the Google Adsense adverts from your website, you earn some money.

Avoiding these four mistakes is an important first step towards increasing the earning potential of your blog. We’ll talk more about ways to make your blog or website successful in future posts.

On a personal note, I haven’t always posted as often as I should or worked hard enough to increase the profitability of my blog, so join me in my efforts to “walk my talk”.  Leave a comment to share your thoughts on this topic.

So you got a blog, you put up articles and still, your affiliate marketing programs haven’t made one thin dime. There are other ways to monetize your blog and have it generating the most money possible. Once you learn this set up for your own blog, you’ll probably start dreaming up more niche markets to conquer using this method.

First of all, make your blog stand out. If you are just hosting your blog at Blogspot or the WordPress websites, bite the bullet and get yourself some hosting. There are numerous places around the web to get cheap hosting and the smartest move you can make is to get yourself a reseller account. That means you can create nearly unlimited domains and only pay for the domain name, usually less than $10; and pay nothing more for your domain. This means you can create extremely targeted blogs with a very minimum of investment.

Next, Adsense is still a good thing to ad. There are a lot of other Pay-Per-Click advertisers out there, but their traffic all pales in comparison to Adsense. Text ads that match the rest of your website will fit seamlessly and generate more clicks. Also, choose your affiliate marketing programs with care. Do a little research and choose products that are targeted to the content you’re putting up. If you have a blog about Boxer dogs, use affiliate marketing programs such as a dog training ebook, boxer imprinted items from another affiliate program you joined and maybe sign up to market organic dog food or gourmet dog treats. All of these will make great relevant content for your site and help boost your blog as an authority on Boxer dogs.

Content? Yes, content. You need original content and the reason is simple. If the set up and content of your blog matches other blogs out there exactly, Google and other search engines will consider your site irrelevant and it will placed in supplemental results – in short, no one will find you. Be unique, write your own content or buy content, no matter how you get it up there. it will help boost your blog’s page rank and organic search results. One good way to get content ideas is to put in your keyword or keyword phrase and then hit the “News” search on Google and find a relevant current event that relates to your content to talk about on your blog – this keeps your content fresh and up to the moment. If there’s talk about a bill in congress to make spaying and neutering dogs mandatory except for breeders, relate that to your own content and write about it – once you get in the habit of it, you’ll find the ideas flow easily.

If you aren’t sure how popular your blog is at the moment, make your blog popular. Go to one of the many Social Networking venues such as Digg.com, Sphinn.com or Technorati.com and put up your own posts. Also, hit forums that are in your genre and in your signature line, put a link to your site. If you want to promote your Boxer dog blog, show up at some boxer-related forums and post and answer questions. It may take a few postings on the boards but people will get interested and visit your site, click on an ad or two and hopefully buy one of your affiliate marketing programs earning you a commission.

Those are just a few ways to help your blog make some money. Once you get this going with one blog, you can expand outwards and have two, then three and more blogs all earning a steady income. Just do your research and choose your programs with the thought in mind they need to work together with the theme and content of your blog and  you can create a great source of passive income for years to come.

A good blog post is readable and thought provoking

In my quest to become a better blogger, I read what other bloggers say on this topic and asked friends why they read blogs. Specifically, I wanted to know what makes a blog or, a post, worth reading. 

My friends told me they read blogs that are entertaining, well-written, fun, controversial or thought-provoking. Others read certain blogs because they contain useful information on topics of interest. Sometimes it’s important that the information is free.

Often blog readers hope to learn from people who have established themselves as experts. The reader’s goal in this case is to learn as much as possible without having to reinvent the wheel or to avoid making mistakes.

 Perhaps the best blog posts contain a little of all of these points.

 I learned even more from what other bloggers have written. A good blog breathes new life into topics others may have done-to-death and isn’t afraid to break the rules, one blogger said

“Good blogs have a voice,” according to Merlin Mann who explored this subject at some length in his blog, 43 Folders. “They show some level of craft, thinking, and continuity beyond the word count . . . Good blogs make you want to start your own blog.”

Other bloggers use words like authenticity, honesty, passion, humor and relevance to describe traits that set one blog apart from others. Posts that are philosophical, give advice or start with mistakes are also effective. And case studies that are not overhyped can be useful too, according to Frank Strong at Sword and the Script.

A Good blog “makes your opinion known, links like crazy, includes passion, snappy headlines, bullet point lists and are easy to scan,” observes Darren Rouse whose Problogger is a favorite among bloggers trying to make their own blogs better.

A good blog post should be short, have a hook and give readers something to act on, says a writer at Accessinitiative.org.

“Good blogs are laser-focused, targeted to its audience and personal,” according to a blogger at findableblogs.com. “They have original content. They are readable, link to relevant information and have accurate, but intriguing titles.”

I found it useful to take a look at what other bloggers believe sets their posts apart from the thousands of new blogs people are starting daily.

Sometimes you can’t say specifically what makes a blog work, but you recognize quality and valuable content when you see it. I’d love to hear your views on this topic. What do you think makes a good blog post?