European Rocket Launches British and Mexican Satellites

PARIS — Europe’s Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift rocket on Dec. 19 successfully launched telecommunications satellites for use by the British and Mexican governments in the rocket’s seventh and final campaign for 2012.

It was the 53rd consecutive success for Ariane 5, which has now gone 10 years without a failure.

The operators of the two satellites — the British Skynet 5D and the Mexsat Bicentenario — reported that both were sending signals and healthy in geostationary transfer orbit after separating from the Ariane 5 ECA upper stage.

The launch enabled the Evry, France-based Arianespace launch consortium to meet its goal of conducting 10 flights in 2012 — seven Ariane 5s, two Europeanized Soyuz vehicles and the inaugural flight of Europe’s Vega small-satellite launcher — from Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport on the northeast coast of South America.

Arianespace and European government officials hope that spreading the fixed spaceport costs over three vehicles in the coming years, coupled with upgrades expected for both Ariane 5 and Vega, will enable Arianespace to eke out a profit with a diminishing amount of annual government operating-cost support payments. [Photos: Amazing Night Launch of Ariane 5]

Ariane 5 ECA’s inability to generate a steady profit despite its decade of success and the fact that its direct competitors in the global commercial market have struggled in the past couple of years speaks volumes about the market’s business model, European government and industry officials say.

The Dec. 19 launch carried satellites ordered by commercial companies acting on behalf of government customers.

The Skynet 5D, built by Astrium Satellites under a contract with sister company Astrium Services, will be tested in orbit at 25 degrees east before moving to its operating slot at 53 degrees east in geostationary orbit.

The 4,800-kilogram Skynet 5D is the fourth, and likely the last, Skynet 5 satellite ordered under a 20-year partnership between the British Defence Ministry and Astrium Services. The contract runs to 2022, after which the ownership of the Skynet satellites will transfer to the British government, which will then likely organize a fresh competition for satellite services.

Astrium Services provides Skynet bandwidth to NATO and individual NATO governments in addition to its guaranteed service to British defense forces.

Riding in the lower position on the Ariane 5 ECA rocket was the Mexsat Bicentenario satellite, which will be used by the Mexican government to provide fixed telecommunications and Internet services to Mexican communications that are not attached to the country’s communications grid.

The 3,000-kilogram Mexsat, carrying eight Ku- and eight C-band transponders, was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., under contract to Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems of El Segundo, Calif.

The Mexican government in 2010 selected Boeing to provide the three-satellite Mexsat system under a $ 1 billion contract that includes two large Boeing-built mobile communications satellites, set for launch in 2013 and 2014, and the smaller Bicentenario spacecraft.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank provided $ 922 million in loans to support the financing of the three satellites’ construction by the two U.S. manufacturers.

Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico’s secretary of communications and transport, which manages the Mexsat program, said the total Mexsat budget is around $ 1.6 billion. He said after the launch that the Mexican government is committed to delivering Internet access to all its citizens, and that Mexsat is central to that effort.

This story was provided by Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Goodbye, U.S. Postal Service?

This Christmas could be the Post Office's last, says John Avlon.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The U.S. Postal Service is bleeding money and heading toward insolvency


• John Avlon: Congress can save the postal service in deal on the fiscal cliff


• He says the urgency is clear, let's hope for a Christmas miracle


• Avlon: But be prepared that Washington dysfunction can doom the postal service

Editor's note: John Avlon is a CNN contributor and senior political columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is co-editor of the book "Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns." He is a regular contributor to "Erin Burnett OutFront" and is a member of the OutFront Political Strike Team. For more political analysis, tune in to "Erin Burnett OutFront" at 7 ET weeknights.

(CNN) -- It's the time of year for dashing through the snow to the crowded post office, with arms full of holiday gifts for family and friends.

Not to break the atmosphere of holiday cheer, but this Christmas could be the last for the U.S. Postal Service. It is losing $25 million dollars a day and staring down insolvency -- unless Congress steps in to pass a reform package that reduces its costs.

With just a few days left in the congressional calendar, there is still some small hope for a Christmas miracle -- maybe the Postal Service can be saved as part of a deal on the fiscal cliff. But with even Hurricane Sandy relief stalled, skepticism is growing.

John Avlon

The real question is, what's taken them so long? After all, back in April the Senate passed an imperfect but bipartisan bill by 62-37. It would have saved some $20 billion, cut some 100 distribution centers, and reduced head count by an additional 100,000 through incentives for early retirement, while reducing red tape to encourage entrepreneurialism and keeping Saturday delivery in place for at least another two years. At the time, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said, "The situation is not hopeless; the situation is dire. My hope is that our friends over in the U.S. House, given the bipartisan steps we took this week, will feel a sense of urgency."

To which the House might as well have replied, "Not so much."

In August, the Postal Service defaulted for the first time, unable to make a $5.5 billion payment to fund future retirees' health benefits. The headline in Government Executive magazine said it all: "Postal Service defaults, Congress does nothing."

The usual suspects were at fault -- hyperpartisan politics and the ideological arrogance that always makes the perfect the enemy of the good.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa greeted the news of the Senate bill by calling it a "taxpayer-funded bailout." His primary complaint was that the Senate bill did not go far enough. He was not alone -- Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe also expressed disappointment at the scope of the Senate bill, saying that it fell "far short of the Postal Service's plan."

But Issa's alternative couldn't even get to a vote in the Republican-controlled House. And so nothing happened. Even after the USPS defaulted on a second $5.5 billion payment, the response was crickets.

Washington insiders said that action would be taken after the election, when lawmakers would be free to make potentially unpopular decisions. But despite a series of closed-door meetings, nothing has been done.

It's possible that the nearly $20 billion in savings could be part of a fiscal cliff deal. Sen. Joseph Lieberman has suggested that ending Saturday delivery, except for packages, could be part of a compromise that could save big bucks down the road. Another aspect of a savings plan could be suspending the USPS' onerous obligation to fully fund its pension costs upfront, a requirement that would push many businesses into bankruptcy. And last fiscal year, the post office posted a record $15.9 billion loss.

"As the nation creeps toward the 'fiscal cliff,' the U.S. Postal Service is clearly marching toward a financial collapse of its own," says Carper. "The Postal Service's financial crisis is growing worse, not better. It is imperative that Congress get to work on this issue and find a solution immediately. ... Recently key House and Senate leaders on postal reform have had productive discussions on a path forward, and while there may be some differences of opinion in some of the policy approaches needed to save the Postal Service, there is broad agreement that reform needs to happen -- the sooner the better."

The urgency couldn't be clearer -- but even at this yuletide 11th hour, signs of progress are slim to none. If Congress fails to pass a bill, we'll be back to square one in the new year, with the Senate needing to pass a new bill which will then have to be ratified by the House. There is just no rational reason to think that lift will be any easier in the next Congress than in the current lame duck Congress, where our elected officials are supposedly more free to do the right thing, freed from electoral consequences.

So as you crowd your local post office this holiday season, look around and realize that the clock is ticking. The Postal Service is fighting for its life. And Congress seems determined to ignore its cries for help.

"Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor gloom of night" can stop the U.S. Postal Service from making its appointed rounds -- but congressional division and dysfunction apparently can.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Avlon.

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Captured bank robber makes polite appearance in court

Hezekiah Harper-Bey, 19, describes what he saw last night when FBI agents and Chicago police arrested Joseph Banks, who escaped from federal jail earlier this week. (Posted on: Dec. 21, 2012)

After a brazen escape and three days on the run, Joseph “Jose” Banks was quiet and respectful in court today as he made his initial appearance following his capture overnight on the North Side.

Banks, who was shackled at his wrists and ankles, answered questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier politely – a sharp contrast to his defiant behavior during his trial last week on bank robbery charges in the same Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

A lawyer did not fight Banks’ detention, knowing that would be futile for a convicted bank robber who had just made a daring escape early Tuesday from a federal jail in the South Loop, scaling down from some 15 stories with a rope fashioned from bedsheets.

Banks faces one count of escaping federal custody that carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison on conviction. He also faces sentencing in March for his conviction last week on two bank robberies and two attempted holdups.

Banks was taken into custody by FBI agents and Chicago police around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the 2300 block of North Bosworth Avenue, according to the FBI.

A neighbor, the Rev. Baggett Collier, said she heard a loud bang and looked out her window.

"We heard a big boom first," she said. "We thought a transformer burst or there was a traffic accident. Later, my daughter called and said police were out there. I went out and I saw him. He was cuffed. His head was down. I didn't hear him say anything. They got him into the wagon peacefully. The police were pretty calm bringing him out.

"He was just normal, Collier added. "There were so many police there."

She said agents also took into custody a man who was living in the townhouse where Banks was found. He also was in handcuffs and placed in another squadrol. "A really good guy, well-disciplined, somebody a mother would be proud of."

The man and his two teen-aged sons live in the townhouse with a woman and her two younger sons, Collier said. "Very humble people, they take very good care of their children."

Collier said she saw the woman last evening at a neighborhood store. "She seemed nervous and upset," she said. "Looking back, it's like she wanted to tell me something but was afraid to say anything. She had gotten what she wanted and just stood there. I said, 'How you doing?' She said, 'OK.' But you know when something doesn't seem right. I believe she might have been afraid."

Collier said she was shocked by the arrest. "I had talked to my daughter yesterday. I told her, 'I don't want you walking in the neighborhood because those robbers are out there.' "

Hezekiah Harper-Bey, 19, was watching television in his bedroom when he noticed a man outside wearing a white T-shirt and blue shorts. He heard a “loud boom” and looked outside to see the FBI with their guns pointed at the man, who turned out to be Banks.

“Then I saw him run past a little field and into a house,” he said. Harper-Bey said he walked outside and saw Banks in handcuffs.

“He had a white T-shirt with blue shorts. I saw him but I didn’t pay him no mind,” he said. “I just started to watch TV. That's when I heard the loud boom and that’s when I looked, then I put two and two together. I’m like, that was the bank robber. I never knew I could get the $60,000 (reward). I watched the news so I seen his face, so I knew it was him when I saw him.”

Banks was using a cell phone just minutes before the arrest, Harper-Bey said. “I thought he was a regular person who lived around here,” he said.  “Then I saw the FBI with their guns pointed out and they said he ran into a house. Then I went downstairs before he got into the wagon. That's when I saw him.

"It was like 30, 20 of them (FBI agents). There was a lot of them," Harper-Bey said. "He was in handcuffs, tied to the back. There were like three cops with him.

"Before he came out, they (FBI agents) came out with a shoebox and I’m thinking it’s the money. Two seconds later, he came out," Harper-Bey said. "He didn’t put up a fight."

He said he had not noticed Banks in the neighborhood before. Harper-Bey said he believes Banks had stayed inside the townhouse for days and no one in the neighborhood suspected he was there.

Another witness, Colm Marron, said he stepped out of a bar on Fullerton Avenue and saw about a half-dozen unmarked police cars gathering in the Walgreens parking lot around the corner from the building.

“They flew out, just down there,” he said, motioning from inside the bar toward Bosworth Avenue. Seconds later he heard a “huge bang.”

“I was surprised how loud the bang was. It wasn’t like any thunder I’ve ever heard,” he said. “There wasn’t any echo to it, just that loud, off the bat.”

A few minutes later, a handful of marked Chicago police cars arrived, he said.

Banks and his cellmate, Kenneth Conley, both convicted bank robbers awaiting sentencing, were last accounted for at 10 p.m. Monday during a routine bed check at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, authorities said.

About 7 a.m. Tuesday, jail employees arriving for work saw ropes made from bedsheets dangling from a hole in the wall near the 15th floor. The two had put clothing and sheets under blankets in their beds to throw off guards making nighttime checks, authorities said.

Cameras mounted to the side of the 28-story federal jail captured Banks and Conley sliding down the building shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to an employee who wished to remain anonymous.

The men left view briefly, but it was believed they landed on the roof of a garage below. Moments later, footage from a different camera showed them hopping a black fence marking the perimeter of the property, the employee said.

The FBI said a surveillance camera a few blocks from the jail showed the men, wearing light-colored clothing, hailing a taxi at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue. They also appeared to be wearing backpacks, according to the FBI.

The manhunt for the inmates included several high-profile raids Tuesday in the southwest suburbs of Tinley Park and New Lenox, where Conley's family and associates lived. Conley is still unaccounted for as of Friday morning.

A $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the two fugitives was announced by the FBI.

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Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said.

The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect has dominated leadership of the Sunni Muslim majority - rumbles on.

Opposition sources said rebels had won some territory in the strategic southern town of Morek and were surrounding the Alawite town of al-Tleisia.

They were also planning to take the town of Maan, arguing that the army was present there and in al-Tleisia and was hindering their advance on nearby Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and another battleground in the conflict.

"The rockets are being fired from there, they are being fired from Maan and al-Tleisia, we have taken two checkpoints in the southern town of Morek. If we want to control it then we need to take Maan," said a rebel captain in Hama rural area, who asked not to be named.

Activists said heavy army shelling had targeted the town of Halfaya, captured by rebels two days earlier. Seven people were killed, 30 were wounded, and dozens of homes were destroyed, said activist Safi al-Hamawi.

Hama is home to dozens of Alawite and Christian villages among Sunni towns, and activists said it may be necessary to lay siege to many minority areas to seize Morek. Rebels want to capture Morek to cut off army supply lines into northern Idlib, a province on the northern border with Turkey where rebels hold swathes of territory.

From an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, Alawites have largely stood behind Assad, many out of fear of revenge attacks. Christians and some other minorities have claimed neutrality, with a few joining the rebels and a more sizeable portion of them supporting the government out of fear of hardline Islamism that has taken root in some rebel groups.

Activists in Hama said rebels were also surrounding the Christian town of al-Suqeilabiya and might enter the city to take out army positions as well as those of "shabbiha" - pro-Assad militias, the bulk of whom are usually Alawite but can also include Christians and even Sunnis.

"We have been in touch with Christian opposition activists in al-Suqeilabiya and we have told them to stay downstairs or on the lowest floor of their building as possible, and not to go outside. The rebels have promised not to hurt anyone who stays at home," said activist Mousab al-Hamdee, speaking by Skype.

He said he was optimistic that potential sectarian tensions with Christians could be resolved but that Sunni-Alawite strife may be harder to suppress.

SECTARIAN FEARS

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria's conflict was becoming more "overtly sectarian", with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

"They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries," said Karen Abuzayd, one of the U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

Deeper sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

Some activists privately voiced concerns of sectarian violence, but the rebel commander in Hama said fighters had been told "violations" would not be tolerated and argued that the move to attack the towns was purely strategic.

"If we are fired at from a Sunni village that is loyal to the regime we go in and we liberate it and clean it," he said. "So should we not do the same when it comes to an Alawite village just because there is a fear of an all-out sectarian war? We respond to the source of fire."

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

Assad's forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

Rebels said on Thursday they had negotiated to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

A resident in Damascus said dozens of families were returning to the camp but that the army had erected checkpoints. Many families were still hesitant to return.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria's northern and eastern borders with Turkey and Iraq respectively.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors from the government as well as from the army, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

The conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces on Thursday arrested an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad's Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Wall Street extends gains on "cliff" hope

Stocks extended gains on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq up more than 1 percent, on hopes Washington was moving closer to a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 85.62 points, or 0.65 percent, to 13,321.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 11.77 points, or 0.82 percent, to 1,442.13. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> added 30.29 points, or 1.01 percent, to 3,040.90.

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Find a Lot of Detailed Information About Car Insurance

Are you looking for the best car insurance for your car? If you so, then you should refer to carinsurancerates.com to find the best auto insurance for your car. This site is one of the best places where you can find a lot of detailed information about car insurance services available in the internet. With this site, you do not need to get confused anymore what auto insurance you should choose, because all information you need has been provided here. Besides that, you will also be guided in order to find the best auto insurance that based on your need very well. There are several types of auto insurance coverage that you are able to find here. 

They are casualty insurance, comprehensive coverage, liability coverage, collision coverage, full-coverage car insurance, and also commercial auto insurance. Not only that, but there are also several types of coverage add-ons that you can possibly choose. These coverage add-ons are also important for you to get because you will need them later when you are dealing with car crash. They are gap insurance, medical coverage, car rental reimbursement, under-insured motorist coverage, and also un-insured motorist coverage. To get to know more about these kinds of insurances, visit this site now

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Payday Loan Does not Need Paperwork

Life becomes full of unplanned things and somehow, we have to be ready for it. This readiness is of course getting along with money. Nice consequent, there are many money lenders that provide several product of loan that may meet our need. One of the loans is payday loan. 

Payday loan is what people known as instance money. This is true because once you apply, you get the money soon! Moreover, by the development of modernity and ITC, there are some of the requirements that we do not need to fulfill anymore. The first is the application. It was totally needed to physically come to the office of the money lender to fill out the form. Now, we just need to visit the site and fill the form online. Secondly, we have to submit our credit card to be checked. Whose applications that have bad credit history will not be accepted. 

Therefore, they cannot get it. However, the policy is removed. Anyone may apply because there is no credit card checking. Lastly, it was required for us to submit paperwork related to any of our identity. However, this is not required anymore. Payday loan does not need paperwork. Thus, all we need to do is visiting the site and follow the procedure.

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Blogs Up Page Ranks Through SEO

Blogs can be used to promote a business, another type of organization or a cause. However, if the pages of the blog are do not have a high page rank; they may appear far back in the search engine results pages (SERP) where consumers cannot find them. Excellent SEO can help a blog move to the top of the SERP and can be used to successfully keep it there. Several factors go into making a blog more search engine friendly.

Fresh Content

Search engines give greater preference to fresh content. That means that new text, images and videos increase the likelihood that a particular page will be noticed. The best way to achieve this is to continually add new and different content to the blog. If you do not have the time or inclination to do the work of regularly adding content, you can hire an SEO company to do it for you.

Original Content

Content must also be original to get the best page ranks. Search engines have become savvy to lazy copywriters who steal the work of others. It is no longer possible to get a high ranking by copying content from another site. If content is an exact duplicate of something else on the web, it is virtually ignored by the search engine. Because of this, it is of utmost importance to produce unique work or to hire a reputable SEO company that sticks to the rule of writing completely original content.

Relevant Keywords

A large part of SEO is using keywords to the greatest advantage. Unfortunately, many shady SEO companies are sloppy about choosing keywords. Keywords that are relevant to the main content of the page are much more powerful in page ranks than randomly chosen keywords. The best SEO companies choose, or help you come up with, keywords that are both relevant and effective.

Inbound Links

Inbound links are those hyperlinks from other pages that direct traffic to your blog. These links are helpful in achieving high page ranks. They are the best when they come from other pages with high rankings.

One way to get beneficial inbound links is to put content on popular article marketing sites and link it back to your blog. This gives your blog pages more clout and visibility on the web. In this case, keywords are used to draw users to the article on the article directory and then to guide them directly to the blog. This not only increases traffic to your blog from the article, but it also improves the page rank of the blog itself. That leads to a better position on the SERP for the blog.

SEO can be very influential in generating higher page ranks for blogs. This is something that you can do for yourself if you have the time to research the best keywords, create inbound links and come up with fresh and original content. SEO companies are experts in the field and can push your blog up in the page ranks quickly at an inexpensive rate. There is no reason not to take advantage of these important tools of the trade.

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7 Tips to Increase Blog Traffic Today

Blogging has become a popular form of self-expression for individuals who blog recreationally as well as a means of marketing and brand building for business bloggers. Many new bloggers face the challenge of getting viewers to their blog after they have built it and produced content. After setting up your blog it's important to take a few extra steps to increase blog traffic.

Here are 7 ways to increase blog traffic and get more visitors to your site:

1. Search Engines - make sure that your blog is visible to the major search engines (such as Google, MSN/Yahoo). When visitors type in keywords into a search engine, the goal is to have your blog show up in the first 10 search results.
2. Become part of a blogging tribe - Working as a team is a lot better than working by yourself. Join a team of bloggers who will share each other's content to their own social media/social bookmarking networks. This way your content will spread faster increasing your traffic easier than doing this on your own.
3. Build a presence on online social networks - once you set up your profiles at the major social networks, start a conversation with others who will be most receptive to your message. Show off your latest blog content.
4. Use social bookmarking - this is a great way to share with other the most interesting content across the web. Tag your website with relevant keywords on the most popular social bookmarking sites (such as StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.) making it easy for your target market to find your blog.
5. Participate in guest blogging - guest blogging means writing articles/producing content for other established blogs in your niche or allowing skilled bloggers to produce content for your blog. Your content on someone else's blog helps
6. Build a subscriber list through email marketing - Did you know that only a small percentage of people who visit your blog (or any website for that matter) will purchase on the spot? This is why it's important to collect at least an email from your blog visitors so that you can follow-up with them over time and build a relationship. You can also send your blog posts out to other bloggers email lists if they have built a large subscriber following.
7. Participate in forum marketing - participating in forums that are within your niche are a great way to learn and showcase your experience and knowledge. Many forums also allow you to place a hyperlink (make it point back to your blog) in your signature.

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Blog Writing Tips

Blogs are a great way to attract viewers to your company's website. They are continually being updated, which keeps readers coming back for more, and they help you enter into a conversation with those who visit your website. Website design needs to be eye catching, but don't forget to keep your content alluring as well. Blogs help keep your website's content fresh and exciting. But blog writing can also be hard. Here are a few tips on how to combat writer's block, creativity lapses, and anything else that might stunt your blogging.

The dreaded writer's block. It happens to all of us. Sometimes we sit down to write and nothing comes to us! We have no ideas, no thought provoking conversations we can enter into, and no motivation. Well, there is no cure for writer's block. However, there are some things you can do to help overcome it. First of all, if you are having one of those writer's block days, just take some time to walk away from the computer or notepad. Give your mind a break from thinking, and just relax. Think about what you've written in the past, what subjects have attracted readers before, and what sort of things would be relevant to write about today. More than likely, you will be able to think of something.

If that fails, try free writing. Write down ideas or sentences or paragraphs of different things. One of your threads is bound to take you somewhere, and you may be able to flesh out an entire blog post. Free writing is a great exercise to do before you even sit down at your computer. It gets the creative juices flowing!

When you're out and about, keep your ears open and have a pad of paper and pen with you at all times. Inspiration can strike at any point, and if you catch wind of any good ideas for blogs topics, you should write them down. It will help you in those moments of writer's block.

A good blog always needs a good title. Some writers create a title after their blog is complete. For others, the title is the first thing they write down. Whichever camp you fall into, make sure your title is catchy and informative. It should draw the reader in without being misleading. You can use catch phrases, old sayings, or alliterations; the more creative your title is, the better. Another good tactic is combining a catchy title with a subtitle that describes more what the article is about. For example: From Riches to Rags: The story of the Kardashian's Fall from the Top. The Kardashian's, of course, have not yet fallen from the top, but if they had, people would be interested in reading about it. This title would definitely peak some reader interest.

When you are writing, make sure spelling and grammar is in check. Have someone proofread your work, or enable spell and grammar check on your computer. Everyone makes mistakes, but you won't earn credibility among your readership if you have poor grammar.

Blogs have the potential to attract lots of readers to your company's website; just make sure that you have interesting things to write about. Anything that you have to say that is relevant to your company and your audience is worth sharing with your readership. So start blogging, and keep these tips in mind.

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Tricks to Use Blogs Effectively

Talented writers and artists found an easy medium to gain recognition - BLOGS! But there are some who struggle accessing and using them. A little patience, curiosity and willingness to search will make your blogging experience happy.

Click on all the options available on the page and read the instructions. Every page has detailed explanation on several features and how to operate them. The more you practice, the more comfortable you would grow with your blogging.

Here are some tips that people often forget to follow:

Simple yet Stylish:

Backdrop or the 'THEME' of the blog is the first thing that people would notice. Bloggers try to make it extravagant by choosing vibrant and loud themes. Unless it suites your writing skills there is no such necessity. If you are writing on a theme that is bold and overtly upbeat then a vibrant theme would be apt.

If you really want people to register your writing skills then keep your theme simple. More importantly if you are posting images or videos on the blogs then you should stick to basic and simple theme. This will keep the readers glued to your blog.

Sectioning Blogs:

Readers would appreciate organized blogs. Section your different works under a single blog. For instance you might write on food. Within this you can create different categories like vegetarian and non vegetarian, so on and so forth. There are ample blogs, but if you wish recognition you need to stand out. Make it simple and straightforward as much as you can.

Planning:

People love keeping a random or impromptu style. But planning is what would help you to ensure success. Updating your work on daily basis will project your interest and enthusiasm. If you continue with dedication, it will pay in the future. Over some time you would be allowed to add the option of monetizing your blog. This will help to earn some money.

Sharing Links:

There are various networking channels like Facebook, Google+ etc. Let your friends and relatives know about your work. You can send chats or messages that carries link of your blog. This will help you to build a community. The more visitors to your blog, the more popular would be your blog.

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In order to get the most attention to any of your blog posts, you need to realise that your headline is what is going to pull them in. Your headline needs to tell your readers what they can expect if they read your article and there should also be a benefit to them having read your content. This will ensure that they will keep coming back to your blog looking for further valuable information.

Some of the best headlines that generally tend to do very well are "How To" People want to know how to do things, how to solve their problems and if you are able to provide an answer then you are certain to get readers.

Other great headline ideas are those that contain numbers. For instance "7 steps to online success", which tells the reader instantly what the article they about to read is all about, and the number in the title suggests that the process is not too difficult and is therefore manageable.

It really is essential that you do focus on your headline before you even start your writing, because your headline really has got to work hard for you.

We all very much know that content is king when it comes to SEO, and as well as providing content that is useful it really does allow you to inject your own personality and style. This makes you come alive, for your blog to come alive and over time you will be seen as an authority figure in your industry.

You should consider the formatting of your blog. Do not have large blocks of text together as this makes it literally impossible for anyone to read. Break your text into paragraphs that contain no more than 4 to 5 lines.

Also when starting a new paragraph, and if it is appropriate, start with a new subheading and put this in bold type or just have white space. Do not be afraid of white space, it is there to make your blog content more readable and enjoyable.

When it comes to the font styles that you use, please keep them simple and do not do anything that would be considered to be fancy. Remember your aim is to get people reading your blog and to keep them coming back for more.

So you have written a great headline and some amazing content to match. One of the most important factors any blog reader will want to do is to leave comments. This helps to build your credibility and you should be prepared to make the time to reply to those comments. This is your perfect opportunity to start building relationships, develop leads and potentially obtain more business.

Finally, make sure you have those social media buttons on your blog. Give your readers every opportunity to tweet about you, like you and share your content with their own followers. Social media really does allow you to become an authority in a very short period of time and you will also build back-links naturally therefore helping your search engine ranking.

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Essentials for Successful Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a niche that many are running to in our present days, and not for no reason, the internet marketing niche is growing, it has been growing for a while and it would continue to grow for a while. The internet marketing niche is a gold mine, but only if you know how to mine it. It gives people the opportunity to work from home and to earn a darn good living from it as well if you get it going and you know exactly how to keep it going. Here I am going to be giving you useful tips to help you build your online market and to let you know the right techniques to mine that gold effectively.

• Social Media Marketing

The social media is a great tool for marketing, it is a place where you can go to find potential customers, a large majority of people spend their time on social networking site, and if your product is more specific to a group of people, then that is also the place to go, because across many social media sites, there are many tools to help you reach your target specific potential clients.

• A website

In the internet marketing niche, I have heard of people saying you can be successful with internet marketing without a website, but personally I am not a fan of this saying, you need an effective means of communication with potential clients, you need a means of letting them know that you offer services they might require, and you also need a means of letting them know how and why they should contact you, and all these are functions of a proper website. A website is also key for the next essential of social media marketing, and that is SEO, search engine optimization. For a website to be effective, you need to have the right content on there, because content would always be king, you need to be consistent and make it easy on the eye.

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is probably the most important essential to a successful online business, you need to have SEO. This is going to be the source of a vast majority of traffic and potential clients for your service. When people are looking for a products or service online, they "Google" it and I am sure that is what you do to. So imagine you got on the first page of results for keywords that are related to your product or service, everyone that searches with those keywords, would see your website pop up. Always remember, proper SEO = instant traffic.

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Improving Your Content Presentation When Blogging

Your content presentation when blogging plays a role in whether you'll have return visitors or not! What we're talking about here is increasing the visual appeal of your blog content so visitors have a more pleasant reading experience! After all your success when blogging is dependent upon increasing the number of return visitors to your platform! The last thing any blogger wants to do is to discourage people in any way from returning to their site!

Here are 3 quick and easy to implement suggestions to increase the visual appearance of any blog content you offer on your platform!

Font Selection

The font selection you make should be done with your readers comfort in mind! Although there are some really cool fonts to choose from it's best to stick with only those that will make the reading experience less stressful on the eyes! With that in mind studies conducted have suggested that the Times New Roman, Georgia and Verdana fonts are the best ones to use in terms of making your blog content easy to view!

Pleasing Color Use

Although many of us may be tempted to use our 'favorite' colors or the ones that really JUMP out at you, resist the urge! This pertains not only to what color you display your text in but also the background colors as well! Keeping your fonts dark but non-offensive makes the reading experience more pleasurably for people who land on your site! By non-offensive I mean dark colors such as purple or even red which can really put a strain on your eyes! Play it safe and stick with black or brown! Also keep your background light by choosing colors that are soothing such as all shades of white or even lighter shades of tan!

Reading Material

Selecting the right colors or fonts is all well and good however if your blog content stinks, your previous efforts are all in vain! People need to be interested in what you offer whether it is for the humor, insights or being just plain informative for them to even consider coming back! Remember., as a blogger having return visitors is the best indication you are doing something right!

The 3 suggestions offered above are easy ways to tweak your content presentation when blogging to improve the reading experience for viewers! The bottom line is that the biggest measure of success when blogging is the amount of return visitors your site gets! The bottom line is that if your blog content is difficult to read or holds little interest getting return visitors will be a challenge!

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Writing Effective Blog Articles

This article has the title of 'Home Business Income, Writing Effective Blog Articles' because Blog posting is one of the most important things to learn in order to attract visitors to your site via the search engines. Your blog needs to contain fresh and interesting content for it to rank highly and also to keep visitors on your site and not leave after the first sentence.

Firstly you need to decide which niche market you are aiming for then think of two or three high traffic phrases that best describe your home page. The nest step is most important, go to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to type one of those phrases in the search box. In the column down the left side tick the 'exact' box and untick the 'broad' search box, this will give you more accurate results. You will now be taken to a results page showing you dozens if not hundreds of useful phrases related to your search term. Click on save and choose the.csv option from a drop down menu which will save all these phrases to your PC hard drive for access anytime you like.

Some of these phrases may consist of four or five words known as long tail keywords. Pick a phrase with a global monthly search of say 300 or less with low or medium competition, it is better to rank highly for a phrase with a monthly search of even 100 than to try for a very high number search term with lots of competition which will probably result in no visits to your site so zero traffic. When you have decided which keyword phrase to use from your results you are now ready to write your article.

If you are new to Internet Marketing for Home Business Income, writing effective blog articles means following some basic rules each time. The article should contain around 400 words, make sure that every article uses a different keyword phrase, this is very important for maximising your Internet presence. Place your keyword phrase in the title of your article and two or three times in the main body, maybe once in the first sentence, once at the end and somewhere around the middle. Make one of the references stand out in bold, underlined or in italics etc. It is a good idea to write your article in Word first so you can easily spell and grammar check it until you are happy then paste the article into something like Notepad and then copy and paste the whole article into your website, there will less problems with html this way. If you have a WordPress blog the next step is made a lot easier. Go to your admin page and select Posts > Add New and choose the HTML tab if is not already selected, then paste in your article.

At this stage you can chose the VISUAL tab option and ad a link or two to another site, a blog post somewhere else or even to another post or page on your own site. You can link to an affiliate opportunity that you are promoting as long as it is in the same niche. Make sure the link opens in a new window but don't send your visitors off to a site that has nothing to do with your niche, this will not go down well. You also need to give your article a category and a Tag which can be one of your primary keywords from the beginning. If you have the 'All In One SEO' plug in installed then this will display as another section at the bottom of the page where you add the Title again including your keyword, paste the first two sentences from your post in the description box and enter your keyword/s in the space provided at the bottom.

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Blogging Your Way to Internet Riches

In this economy, people are constantly searching for ways to supplement their regular income. This includes getting a second or even a third job to do just this. The internet is one such opportunity where one can earn a stable income, if you know how. There are certainly many ways to earn money online. One such way is through blogging.

Contrary to popular beliefs, having a blog can certainly earn you money online. This is can be done by having advertisements on your blog. This could be in the form of having text or even banner advertisements from Google appearing on your blog. This strategy is known as "Pay Per Click" or PPC in short. Google will share its revenue with you when someone clicks on the advertisement on your blog. If the topic of your blog is from a competitive niche, you could even earn $30 per click.

The other way to earn money on blog is to promote an affiliate campaign. Affiliate marketing is slightly from "Pay Per Click" in that it requires the person who clicks on the advertisement to buy a product. When this happens, you will be paid a commission or fee. Depending on the affiliate program you join, this commission could be a percentage of the price paid for the product.

If the product you are promoting has several "One Time Offer" (or commonly known OTO) after the initial purchase, this commission could certainly stake up.

There are many affiliate programs that you can join to make money from your blog. One such program is ClickBank. The products on ClickBank are normally information products such as eBooks, home study courses or even software.

The other interesting affiliate program that you can join is Amazon Associates. While many of us think that Amazon is all about books, we cannot be more wrong. We can certainly find lots of interesting products within Amazon. This includes clothes, home furnishing and others. You can even find spare part for cars being sold in Amazon.

In terms of rewards, ClickBank would pay as much as 75% of the purchase price as commission. Amazon Associates on the other hand, would pay from 4% upwards for your effort.

If your blog is an authority in this subject matter, you could even sell advertisement space. It is not uncommon for large corporates to pay as much as four thousand dollars per month as advertisement fees.

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Using Facebook For Blog Traffic

Blogging is something that I enjoy a lot. Many people are using it to make full time incomes, and some people have even achieved national press and TV shows because of their blogs. If you want to promote something or want to build a following online, a blog is a great way to do so.

There are many ways to get traffic to your blog, but I will get to that in a moment. The first thing you need to know is whether or not you have a plan of how to convert that traffic into sales. So how will your blog be set up? Will you put Google AdSense ads on your site along with affiliate program products, or will you be selling your own products?

If you sell your own products, you earn 100% profits from it (if you created it of course or are selling ebooks). If you're going to create your own products, make sure you have a selling system in place so that you can convert a ton of leads and prospects into recurring customers.

You have 2 primary blog hosting services: Blogger and WordPress. I personally like Blogger better, but a lot of people online love WordPress. WordPress offers unique features, and there are things called "plug-ins" that can really "jazz up" your blog and make it reputable.

So now that I have gone over why you should be blogging and how to get set up, let's take a look at how you can get traffic to your blog. This is something that is incredibly easy to do, and driving traffic is something that you should learn how to become a master of. Here's how you can get more traffic to your blog:

- Use Facebook

Facebook as of this writing is the number 1 website on the internet in terms of website traffic. Number 1 used to be Google. I'm not sure how long Facebook will hold on to its title, but if you're not using it in your business today, you're missing out on a boatload of traffic.

People use Facebook all the time to promote their business - and you can also. For some reason, I get a lot of "friend requests" to my personal Facebook page from internet marketers. I'm fine with that... I still collaborate with them in the same way I do with my Facebook fan page.

Invite more and more people to "like you" and join you on your Facebook page. You can upload videos, content, images, and other things also that will help people to gain an understanding of you, and grow closer to you as a business owner - and friend. Facebook has other benefits too.

With Facebook on your team, promoting your blog should be as simple as pie. It's quite easy to market on Facebook, and it's something that you should be doing right now in your internet business if you want to see the sales and profits that you so desperately desire. Take it from me, a well done Facebook page can do wonders for your business.

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One of the Easiest Ways to Make Money Online

If you are looking for a way to make some extra income, one of the simplest methods for making money online is blogging. This article will not focus on the technical aspects of blogging but will focus on the mindset and focus that is required to get you started.

Below are some tips that will support you in making money with your blogging efforts -

Make a list of what you are passionate about - Do not filter this list. Put all of your passions down on paper and make sure not to censor yourself. The beauty of the Internet is that for every topic, there is at least a small group who are rabidly interested in that topic. That audience would be valuable enough to support a fulltime income.

Determine if there is market for your topic - Step 1 is more important. It is important that you have a passion for what you are writing about. However, you want to know why others in your market, are interested in the topic and what questions that they want to get answered. You will want to focus on pain points if you are interested in monetizing your blog. People will pay a lot more to take away their pain as opposed to earning more money.

Just get started - There will never be a perfect to get started and, similar to with having a baby, many first timers will wait for all of the stars to align before they are even willing to get started. Just get started from where you are and know that you will probably not be very good, especially in the beginning. That is OK. As long as you are committed to making a difference for others and committed to getting better with your activities, you will find yourself in a place where you are getting better and better.

Find mentors - An easy way to find mentors is to read other's blogs. Model yourself after somebody who is providing information that you believe is valuable. You do not want to flat out copy those people but there is no harm in modeling yourself after that person. Eventually, you will want to find your own voice and you will find your own voice if you continue to go. However, in the beginning, you may find that you are very similar to somebody else. Again, that is OK unless you are flat-out stealing from that person.

Give it at least 90 days - Do not expect to see results overnight. It is almost impossible that this will occur. Just put your head down for at least 90 days and you will find that you are in a much better place than if you focus on producing results from Day 1. Keep your eye on the ball and on your end goal but exercise patience in your activity and you will wind up in a much better place in the future.

Follow the steps above and you will be in the proper mindset for making money online through blogging. Not only do these tips work for blogging, but they work for any new business or other venture.

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How to Start a Blog Today

The world of blogging provides numerous opportunities for bloggers to express themselves, share information and even make money. Starting a blog can be fun and rewarding if you get the basics right.

Blogs have several advantages over the traditional websites, the major one being the ease of interaction. The following steps will show you how to start a blog:

1) Determine the topic: Your blog should be based on a subject that you are passionate about. Whether it is your career field or a hobby, ensure that you have enough content to keep posting on regular basis.

The topic can be on anything including music, movies, food, politics, cars environment and so on. In most cases, blog topic ideas are not instant. They come from something that you have been following and researching on for some time and that you have now decided to share with the world.

2) Create a relevant name: Choose the blogging software of your choice and create a blog. The blog name/URL should be closely related to the topic. Think of the words or phrases that are likely to be used on the search engines so that you can make it easy for visitors to find you.

The name should also be easy to remember. The system will notify you if your first choice is already taken, and you can select a different combination from the options provided. Once you find your unique name, it becomes the identity of your blog.

Stick with it consistently so that your followers can always find you. If you change it you have to popularize the blog afresh. Take advantage of the customization options such as the themes to attain the perfect look.

3) Post informative content: The quality of your content will attract readers and earn you consistent followers. In the initial blogging days, you are likely to have a lot of material to post often. However, as the days go by, you will find yourself running out of meaningful content to update.

Here you need to start researching and also be innovative. Search Engine Optimized (SEO) articles make great posts as they enhance your ranking as well. The keywords should be chosen carefully bearing in mind the words or phrases that visitors are likely to use.

4) Market your blog: advertising is essential in learning how to start a blog. Even with the right content, you have to find ways of attracting and retaining readers.

Social media is one of the most effective marketing tools. Find relevant pages on sites like Twitter and Facebook and post your links. You can visit other blogs and websites on related topics and leave links to your blog. Your network will extend steadily with time, and with quality content you can be assured that the readers will keep coming back.

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Get Better Clients Today

If you're a professional writer, your income depends on your clients. The more your clients can afford to pay you, the more money you'll make. This is self-evident, however few writers put their focus where it should be -- on getting better clients.

Let's look at four simple steps which will help.

1. Go Where the Money Is: Clients Must Be Profitable

Are you targeting hairdressers, restaurant owners, and other very small businesses? Many writers do this, and it's a huge mistake. These clients can't afford to pay you well. Indeed, most can't afford to hire you.

Look for companies which have over ten employees. Ideally, your clients should have over hundred employees. The bigger the company, the more they can afford to pay you.

2. Introduce Yourself: Don't Be Shy

The more people who know you, the better your chances of getting hired. Many writers are shy. Be brave, and remember that you're providing a valuable service. You're helping the companies, and the publications, which hire you to communicate. You're helping them to make money.

If you're not getting the quality clients you want, spend a little time every day introducing yourself to prospects. Start with local companies; you won't have as much competition.

You can introduce yourself via letter, email, or on the phone. Busy professional writers do this consistently; it's how they build large client lists and make six-figure incomes.

You'll be amazed at how many clients you get just from sending out letters introducing yourself.

3. Encourage Others to Introduce You (Get Referrals)

These days, you have more networking opportunities than at any time in history. However few writers make the best use of these opportunities, by networking initially with the people who know them best.

Twitter, Facebook and all the rest are fine, but before you go there, let all your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and family know that you're looking for gigs. Ask them to refer you to their business colleagues.

Everyone knows someone. Until you ask for referrals however, they have no way of knowing that you're looking for clients. Tell everyone that you're trying to build your business. Be bold: pick up the phone.

Remember to follow up on your requests.

4. Get Visible: Your Blog Is Your Megaphone and Show Case

If you don't have a blog, start one today. You're a writer, therefore, anyone who hires you wants to know that you can actually write.

Look on all the writing you do on your blog and elsewhere, as a writing sample, because it is. The more visible you are, the more clients you'll get.

Professional writers focus their focus on getting great clients. You can do the same. Start today.

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Write An Article In 7 Minutes

If you want to learn how to crank up articles pretty fast and easy then continue reading. I have learned this method from a fellow internet marketer named Cory Friedman.

This article writing formula is designed to help you overcome writer's block. Such style of writing isn't perfect but it will make you take action and get the job done. Write at your own pace. Knowing how to structure your article is what helps and matters the most.

The idea is to stop procrastinating and take action. This method has been proven to work very well for those who have used it. Some will complain, others will take action.

To be honest, most of you won't be able to write an article so quickly from the start. It takes practice to get there but once you know how to structure an article, things become a lot easier.

The research for information that is needed to write an article is not included in the 7 minutes time span. You should have gathered already interesting and useful information related to your topic. Once you've done your research, it's time to write the article.

The structure of an article is pretty simple: introduction, 3 main points, conclusion. Here is a very short written version of the article writing formula:

1. Introduction paragraph

a. Attention grabbing opener (If, then is always effective). Example: "If you want to learn how to make money online then you should read this post carefully."

b. Overview of 3 main points you'll be covering.

c. Tell them what are they going to accomplish by reading the article. This is your hook - you're making sure they remain interested by telling them how are they going to benefit from reading your article.

2. The 3 main points A, B and C. For each main point you'll write the following:

a. General statement about main point

b. Specific statement about main point

c. Sub-point #1 that backs up specific statement

d. sub-point #2 that backs up specific statement

e. Transition to the next main point paragraph

3. Conclusion paragraph

a. General statement

b. Re-iterate the main points

c. Tell the reader what they can now do with the information. Example: "Now you have the wisdom and the power to write good articles pretty fast and build a great online reputation that will help you make more money for years to come."

d. Resource box: let the readers know about you and the benefits they'll get if they visit your site.

That's it. I hope you learned something of value by reading this post and would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on it as well.

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The Benefits of Writing Online Content Consistently

As a business owner, you have made a commitment to not only posting content but doing on a consistent and regular basis. Quality is critical but quantity is not to be forgotten. As the writer, that can be very beneficial.

Blogging is a wonderful and extremely effective method for getting your content noticed, which will enable you to build lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. It is clear that if you post valuable content, your readers will benefit from it. However, what you may not realize is how many benefits you, as the writer, may also get from the content that you post. The more content you share, the more influence you will gain with other people. You are boosting your professional reputation and you are increasing your exposure, which is essential for your business's success. If you aren't sure about whether you are gaining influence among your peers and colleagues, there are some analytics tools that can help you to determine this. Klout is one such example. Klout is an assessment tool that measures your online influence. Google Analytics is another excellent tool that will supply you with all sorts of valuable information.

The value of consistently fresh content

There is a tremendous amount of value in providing consistently fresh content. Your online popularity will increase tremendously as people start to read what you are sharing. The online portion of your business is very much a word-of-mouth business. If people like what they read, they will share it with their friends, who will share it with their friends, etc. If you want to remain at the top of your game and be the first person whom others think of when they need the type of products and/or services that you are offering, you need to offer valuable information on a very regular basis. People will definitely respond to you if you are consistent and you make sure to let them know that you have the ability to solve their problems. You should always keep in mind the marketing principle WIIFM (What's In It For Me). No matter how wonderful you and your business might be, the person on the other end doesn't care about that. All he or she cares about is whether you are able to solve the problems that they are experiencing.

As much as it may be a daunting idea to come up with good-quality content on such a frequent basis, it is far from impossible. There are several tricks that you can use to make it easier for you.

Always have pen and paper with you

Ideas will fly in and out of your head faster than you think and inspiration can be found in so many different places and by so many different people. The only way that you won't lose the ideas is if you write them down immediately after you think of them. It doesn't really matter how you record the ideas, as long as you record them. If you prefer to record it in a mobile device, that will work well also.

The quality of your writing

Undoubtedly, you have tremendous writing skills. With that said, you may still see that some of your content is better than other content. It may not even be a matter of having an off day. Creativity comes at you as it will, not as you want it to, necessarily. Some of your blog posts will be excellent and some will be incredible. No matter what, all of your writing will be greatly appreciated by your readers.

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Best SEO Plugins You Can Use for WordPress

WordPress is probably the most popular blogging platform used by a lot of website owners. It boasts of useful features that makes maintaining websites easy and enjoyable. Another great thing about WordPress is that it has lots of plugins that you can use for search engine optimization. Plugins are heaven-sent for non-techies who are not into hardcore programming and website development. There are lots of plugins available so it's best to choose the ones that can be beneficial for your website.

Headspace 2

This plugin is used for creating meta titles and descriptions, analytics, and customizing archives, to name a few. It is a great tool for optimizing specific pages of your website. It can be tricky to use at first but it's easy once you get used to it.

WP SEO By Yoast

This plugin is loaded with features that will surely delight any website owner. Its functions include snippets, page analysis, breadcrumbs, social integration, RSS optimization, webmaster tools verification, and xml site mapping. You will find its snippet preview function very useful because it allows you to have an idea of how your page or post will appear in search results. The plugin also has allows page analysis in which you can check the length of your posts, if your descriptions are complete, and many more. And the best thing about it? It's free. Some website owners do not find it necessary to install other plugins if they already have WP SEO By Yoast.

All-In-One SEO Pack

Also known as AIO, this plugin is one of the most popular due to its simplicity and functionality. This is a great tool for beginners who know little about tweaking websites. If you are an advanced user, you can customize using this plugin.

Of course, there's always the standard plugins that will work wonders for your website. These include:

Google XML Sitemap

This is the type of plugin that you just install one time and let it do its work on its own. It is designed to make and submit sitemaps, which allows the search engines to efficiently get more information from your website. You can use this for all types of pages generated by WordPress.

Google Site Verification

If you need to verify your website on the webmaster tools used by Google, this is the plugin for you. If you use this, you don't have to think about other means of verification. All you need to do is install and access it through your Google account.

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Benefits of Business Blogging

Here are some of the few benefits of blogging:

SEO: Consistent blogging allows your website to be ranked high on the search engines. Search engines such as Google are looking for solutions for the vast number of people visiting their site daily for answers. Your blog is seen as a solution provider for Google. So this means that you are actually helping Google. Google then rewards you by ranking your site higher. Not only would it help your site to be ranked higher, you will be easily found online.

Relationship building: Your audience are hungry for information. By blogging and giving valuable content you are then solving their problems. As they read your blog every time they feel that they know you. Even if they do not read your blog all the time they do know you have solutions. They can easily recommend their friends and family members to you. As you keep blogging consistently and you are being found online, you will find yourself building great relationships with other bloggers within your industry. This can lead to great joint venture partnerships. Not only will you be blogging but by being consistent has a great benefit of increasing sales within your business.

Expertise: Blogging establishes you as an expert overnight. Whichever profession you are in to by having a blog and consistently blogging, you will be seen as someone who understands their industry. This is not because you know better or have better information than anyone but you have made a decision to invest time and energy into blogging. Blogs does open doors. Some of the doors can be being a guest blogger on someone's blog who has a large audience. When the audience read your blog and like it they will start following your activities and eventually will become your customers.

Blogging pushes you to do quite a lot of research. This means you will get to know some information within your industry which you would not know if you decided not to blog. This is how your expertise is established within your industry.

What to do next.

Blogging consistently can be a difficult task. It requires some investment from you and also making up your mind by blogging no matter what comes your way.

You have now discovered some of the few benefits of blogging, if you are currently having some difficulties blogging consistently, the solution is to set up a plan of action and stick to it.

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How to Setup a Blog - Some Simple Steps

Reading a blogs can be a lot of fun and it might even be enough for you to think about blogging as well. However, it is normal to not know how to create a blog if you are not familiar with the available online services and blogging platforms. Once you get acquainted with these platforms, blogging becomes easy and possibly addicting.

The easiest way in learning how to start a blog is to try to register at an online service first. Sites like WordPress and Blogger are recommended for starters but you should consider WordPress if you plan on starting your own blog in a hosting provider later on. Registering for an account is basically the same as registering for an email or social networking account. Just fill up the required information and confirm your email address.

Once you made your account, you can log in and get greeted with the admin interface. The interface can vary depending on the service and current version of the platform so your best bet is to read the documentation or look for video tutorials online so you can get a nice tour of the various features. Generally, the most obvious thing that you should be able to access is the post editor where you can create your very first blog entry.

Creating your first blog entry should feel like posting a comment on a blog or making a document in your favorite word processor. But the cool thing is that you have more customization options such as formatting and the ability to insert graphics. You can also use a program such as Windows Live Writer to create a blog entry without opening your web browser.

Now that you know how a blog works, the next thing you should do is customize your blog because there are various themes that could better match the theme of your blog. Online services usually have a wide selection of templates to choose from so feel free to take your time in choosing your template. Also remember that you can change your template at any time without worrying about your existing blog posts.

From there on out, it is all about exploration and video tutorials can help a lot. Once you are ready to set up a blog on your own hosting space, you have to download the blogging platform script to your computer and upload it to your server. Some premium hosting providers may allow you to install a blogging platform like WordPress in a single click. Switching to a hosting provider is recommended if you want more flexibility on your blog since you can install any custom template you like or design your own. You can also add widgets and other add-ons if you want extra functionality.

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Making Your Own Money From Blogging

Now that millions of individuals worldwide are making money from blogging, people everywhere are interested in learning how to start a blog. If you have an interest in earning extra cash and enjoy sharing your opinions with others, it may be in your best interest to learn how to create a blog. A blog is a website that lists the entries that is submitted to it in a reverse type of chronological order.

The word "Blog" is derived from the word "Weblog". Originally, this type of website was designed to be a type of journal and/or diary that individuals could use to share their personal thoughts, opinions and ideas on a daily basis. In today's world, it is that and much, much more. In this guide, you will learn some simple steps on how to achieve success by making money from blogging.

The first step to starting a blog so that you may make money is to find a service that will permit you to create a free blog. You should understand that the features associated with free blog services are typically quite limited, but effective enough to do what you need them to do.

Examples of free blogging platforms include Tumblr.com, Blogger.com, WordPress.com and WordPress.org. You may even blog on popular social media platforms like Facebook by using the "Notes" feature available on your account. As time progresses, you will find that you make a suitable additional income by blogging for cash on these websites. However, on down the road, you may want to consider self-hosting the blog in order to make a lot more cash from your efforts.

Once you have selected your niche and the blogging platform that you will use, you must develop a group of titles that you will use to create your first blog posts. You should also develop some cash generating ideas on how to make your blogs profitable. Today's bloggers utilize the Google AdSense program, Chitika, CPM ad networks and even affiliate programs to generate money from the blogs that they create.

Then, there are many that create digital products such as newsletters, guides and even Kindle eBooks to generate money from their blogging efforts. In addition to this, numerous bloggers engage in direct ad sales that permit them to earn additional cash. You may even elect to create and sell blogs that other bloggers may use on their selected platforms to generate an additional income.

There are many creative ways to generate a lucrative income by blogging. This is not considered to be a get rich scheme. As a matter of fact, most bloggers never truly "get rich". However, it is possible to create an income that is suitable enough to handle your monthly expenses or even enough money to do extras - like purchase big ticket items or go on a dream vacation.

It all depends on the amount of work and time that you dedicate to the endeavor. Blogging is a very realistic means of obtaining additional cash. By using the strategies outlined in this guide, you will soon discover the freedom and flexibility of making money from blogging.

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SEO Blogging Tips

I've talked before about how Google loves blogs and how WordPress helps you rank. The reason for this is because Google loves fresh, regularly updated and relevant content, and that is what blogging is about all over. Just using WordPress on your site obviously isn't going to guarantee you anything, so every time you make a new post keep these 5 SEO blogging tips in mind.

Keyword Research/Usage

It all starts here. Make sure that you're targeting the right keywords in your posts and use them in the correct way. This means putting your keyword in your title, sprinkled throughout the article with the optimal keyword density, and in your images which brings us to my next SEO blogging tip.

Images/Videos

Remember to fill your post full of not just text but images, as well. Google likes this, your readers like this, and this gives you a chance to rank in the SERPs for your images, as well, assuming you remember to use your keywords as the alt and title tags.

On a related note, Google loves video, as well, so adding a video to your post can help you rank, as well.

Internal Linking

Whenever you get the chance, it's important that you create internal links to other relevant posts and content on your site within your new posts. You'll notice I'm doing a lot of that in this post. Internal linking spread the juice out to other posts to help them rank better in the SERPs for their keywords, plus it keeps people on your site longer.

Permalink Structure

This refers to how your URLs are designed whenever you create a new post/page. I use a specific permalink structure to ensure that it's optimized for SEO and has the best chance for ranking well.

Consistency

The last of these SEO blogging tips doesn't have to do with the content itself but rather with the schedule which you add new content to your site. Maintain some kind of consistency with your posts to show that your site is updated regularly. This doesn't mean that you have to add a new post or page every day. If you can only manage one new post a week, stick with that schedule. It's a turn off to both search engines and your regular readers to see inconsistent post updates, so find something you can do and stick with it.

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Get Your Blog on the Right Track

Blogging has become a popular way to promote a business, share knowledge on a particular topic or simply express oneself. Nowadays bloggers also use their blogs to earn some extra cash by publishing unique content and displaying targeted ads. Whatever the purpose of your blog is, in order to make it successful on the internet you will have to put some extra effort than just adding posts to it every now and again.

Getting your blog on the right track is important if you want to be ahead of your competitors in the online world. Consistent and useful information is what keeps a blog up-to-date and according to the current trends. Building your network with other bloggers who share your expertise is also essential for the success of a blog. When you post unique articles on your blog on a regular basis, your page views and visitor count increase with the passage of time. This is a good measure of whether you are on the right track or not.

Search engine optimization helps to improve the ranking of your blog in search engine results. If your blog revolves around a particular niche, make sure you publish keyword-rich articles regularly to rank high in Google and other search engines for specific keywords related to your niche. If the number of visitors to your blog is not increasing, it's time to point out the shortcomings. To improve your blog, you can check out what your competitors are doing and what tools and technologies you have at your disposal.

Always keep in mind the focus or purpose of your blog to keep it on the right track. Sometimes there is a need to identify a sub-niche if the topic you have thought of is too generalized. Length and structure of posts is also important, which is often overlooked by novice bloggers. If your blog is not producing the desired results, you may need to revise your strategy. This needs an evaluation of the inbound links your blog has and how to increase this number, among other things. Writing guest posts for other blogs related to your niche is the best way to achieve this.

If your blog is not on the right track you may not be able to achieve your goals. It is therefore important to decide if you need to end your current blog and start a completely new one or change the theme of your existing blog and add more interesting posts to improve it and accomplish the purpose you have in mind.

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Make Money At Home: Ways to Make Money Online

Today, in this age of internet facilities, many things can be done while sitting at home. In fact, you can even make money at home. The choice to make money online is quite wise and there are various opportunities which could aid you in that.
What is intriguing is that there are hordes of people falling for this concept. It is time-flexible as also no such stress of meeting deadlines. One of the most popular options is blogging. All you need is a computer/laptop and an internet connection. Imagine being paid to write your own thoughts! Yes, a lot of people earn from blogging. It can be self or a tie-up with some enterprise.
You would have to write on that and will be paid on basis of per click-i.e. the number of readers who have clicked on your link. Next, there are the umpteen sites where you can sell your stuff or perform the concept of buying and selling-eBay, Amazon etc. You can sell books, any other unique artifacts. There are people who look for buying used stuff; hence you can even sell it on a personal basis-that is, not have to register on any site.
There is the Shares' option. If you are well versed with in finances and understand its nuances quite well, then you can surely dabble in shares. It is also called online trading. The only condition is that you should understand the finance concept and the timing.
Then, there is the freelance concept. Yes, it could be for writing, photography, reviewing and many more such arenas. You are usually paid for them after it is accepted/sold. Here, you are not exclusively bound to any company and can very well take up more than an assignment. it is quite a cool option where you are paid for your talent. Even print journalism comes under this-where your articles are published in newspapers etc.
Make Money Online: Make Money At Home
A unique channel is the Astro Reading. If astrology is your forte, then you can open up your own website or blog and start doling out predictions! You would be amazed at the response you would be receiving.
Next, there is self-publication. That is, you can publish your own book. Right from its inception-writing, editing everything will be done by you or you can relate to other such publication houses via e-mail for their inputs and within sometime, you can publish your own book online and even make a decent profit out of it. There are many such websites which readily host such concepts.
There are also the Consultation services solutions. If you possess considerable knowledge and experience related to any specific sector, then you can very well start your own consultation-at-home business. Yes, there are people out there who pay a considerable amount for obtaining solutions-be it technical, financial etc for their ventures.
Thus, to make money online is quite simple. Another quirky way is to sell your own designed apparels. If you are inclined creatively, then you sell your designs to a store (who would then adopt) or even sell clothes from home. Hence, surely you can make money at home.

Chris Donne - From working in the corparate world,having virtually no computer skills, to a highly successful Internet entrepreneur. Chris discovered the "SECRET TO SUCCESS" in making money online. By teaching others his exact strategies and techniques, many of his students have become top income producers themselves and have been amazed at how POWERFUL and "automated" these marketing methods can be. To make money online with a legitimate and sustainable online business you need leads, you to put constantly put yourself in front of people who are interested in what you have

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