Boosting Your Home Based Business with Blogging

In terms of personal necessity, blogs act as an avenue for you to express yourself. It can serve as a memory bank for articles you dragged from the internet. It functions like an organizer and thus keeps you updated on everything. A blog is nevertheless a personal website.
The functions of a blog don't stop there. In the field of business, a blog is also used as an instrument. There are thousands of companies that have adapted blogs to push their businesses at the summit. Focusing on the power of the internet, these companies manage to trust their blogs for the growth of their businesses. They have actually gambled in a sure win game. Knowing how many people surf the web everyday these companies are geniuses.

How about those smaller enterprises? Do blogs suit them? By all means, yes.

Home based businesses need a blog much more than any other types of businesses. Or shall we be more specific by saying that such type of businesses necessitate more promotion than that of the mainstream businesses. Since their business place is far off from the central marketplace, people need to be informed and be aware of the existence of these smaller enterprises through blogging. By means of blogging, these types of businesses are given a chance to be known and be noticed. They can gather an audience and later on customers by means of these super business channels, or Blogs.

Here are some advantages of  having a blog for a home based business:

» Blogs are an all-in-one package. HTML is hard to learn and a little time consuming. By using blogs you will not have a problem with the appearance since it is preset for convenience purposes. It is very simple to change fonts and colors, add images and links with no knowledge of HTML or CSS at all.

» You can post any thing on blogs without any hassle at all. Plus you can post any time. Nonetheless, posting is not a problem.

» Since blogs are not e-mail communication, spam has no place in it.

» Blogs are convenient because you can easily make as many as you need to cover your subjects or topics.

In order for your blog to be beneficial to your business, there are a few things that you will need to do.

1. You must update your blog, two to three times a week at least.. New updates leave something to look forward to on the side of your audience. It will leave your audience asking for more. Never overlook all current information and issues that will surely catch their attention.

2.  Your blog must have a place for comments, reactions and suggestions. It will help you reach the audiences tastes and desires through their own feedback. Criticism is an essential tool for growth. Just take every criticism positively.

3. Do not forget to link your blogs to other resources. It will help not just you and your business but also your customers.

4. Simplicity is not ugly. Complicated layout and color will attract customers easily and also can shoo them away easily too. Remember that content is more important than anything else on your blog.

5. Lastly, keep your good values intact. That will require you to have an ample amount of patience, a comforting aura, proper relationship through words, etc. You may not have a large audience at first, but it will grow with time.

More entrepreneur and business articles

Free Advertising Sites

I found some more free advertiseing and classified sites yesterday that I wanted to pass on to all of you. I like these sites a lot because they are easy to use and I've already seen lots of hits to my blog after posting my ads yesterday morning. They are all pretty much set up using the same system so once you get the hang of it you'll see how easy it is.

Advertyze is great because it safely and spam free sends targeted email advertisements.

Swom  is one I like a lot because you can advertise your business, services and expertise. You set up a profile where you review the company you work for and then you choose what you have to offer other people and then you can select people and their businesses and services based on what you are looking for.

Free Ads Planet This one is a forum for advertiseing.

My Free Adboard is what I have recently posted in the menu tabs across the top of the site. It's just a basic classifieds board, really easy to submit to or sign up for your own.

Text Ad Profits I love this site and think that it is one of my favorites. You post free text ads that you can save so after the first time you use it all you need to do is hit send the next day and your messages go back out again. It is very simple and fast.

My Daily List Builder - Another good one for free classifieds posting. If you join you can also post html ads and text links to your site.

I've seen results from each of these in just two days so I really think they are all good sources of free advertiseing that you should try.

Sites to Submit Your Giveaways To

If you host giveaways on your site you know how important it is to have lots of entries. Some times you have a giveaway that you need to tell people about instead of hoping they will find it on their own. There are a lot of places to submit your giveaway and contest too other than the networks that you may be a member of. Blogger communities like mombloggers club.com and twittermoms.com are a great place to start but once you go through your networks try posting your giveaways to the sites below and see how many more entries you'll find for all of your contest. The first section of links is for contest/giveaway/sweepstakes sites that you can submit your giveaways to. The second section of links are all other blogs that you can submit your giveaways too. Take some time to go through the list and find the sites that you like or you can just start at the top or the bottom and work your way through the many sites listed below.



Sweepstakes/Giveaway/Contest Sites

http://www.prizeatron.com/ located in link bar across bottom of the header

http://www.contestformoms.com/

http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ click on add a sweeps at the bottom of the page

http://contestgirl.com/ add a sweeps is in the left side bar

http://cashnetsweeps.com/ submit a sweeps is on the left sidebar near the top

http://www.prizey.net/ submit listing is located in the link bar across the bottom of the header


Blogs to Submit Your Giveaways To

http://mommysmoneycents.blogspot.com/ - Giveaway Round Up Tuesdays

http://icefairystreasurechest.blogspot.com/2009/02/giveaways-express-on-auto-pilot.html

http://livegiveaways.com/submit-a-giveaway/ - can't miss submit

http://blogsweeps.com/ - click on submit a giveaway across the top link bar

http://sweetiessweeps.com/#axzz0cL44HAf6 click "blog giveaways" in the top link bar

http://agiveawayeveryday.com/ Linky is located half way down the page on the left

http://agiveawayeveryday.com/

http://lifesacharm.net/blog/the-giveaway-enthusiasts submit a giveaway-giveaway is located in the link bar across the bottom of the header

http://www.eightymphmom.com/search/label/Giveaway%20Linky - submit on Link 'em Up Thursdays

http://doubleprizes.com/ you can't miss it at the top of the page

http://thesuburbanjungle.blogspot.com/ submit on Link and win Mondays

http://momgiveaways.com/ submit located across the link bar under the header

How to Make Money and Monetize Your Blog

I've made a list of ten of the best ideas to monetize your blog and your Twitter Account. Join the sites below and start making some money with your blog and your Twitter.

Make money with your Twitter account using the sources below:

1. Ad.ly Twitter Advertising Network
2. Sponsored Tweets

Make Money with Your Blog using these Sources:

1. Bloggers Review
2. Advertise Space
3. Blogvertise
4. Pay per Post
5. Blog Ads
6. Bloggers Review
7. Sponsored Reviews
8. Jungle Ad Network

They are all very easy to join althought some of the blog networks have different requirements to join. I think these are the best choices but the choice is yours, so check them all out.

Blog and RSS Directories

I made this giant list/directory of directories for blogs. Everyone with a blog should submit it to as many directories as possible. I have almost finished the list myself and my backlinks have greatly increased and my page rank went up too, but nobody really knows how that works so I don't know if that matters or not.

If you don't have an RSS feed for your blog, try Feedburner.com and set one up then submit your blog to all of these RSS search engine directories.

RSS Search engine Submissions

http://www.bloglines.com/

http://www.solarwarp.net/submitrss.php

http://www.leighrss.com/rss-add.html

http://www.blogdirectory001.com/?section=signup

http://www.5z5.com/Suggest-A-Feed/

http://www.feedplex.com/add-url.php

http://www.2rss.com/index.php


Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To

http://topblogarea.com/

http://www.blogarama.com/

http://www.bizymoms.com/blog-network/index.php - Click on blogger network at the top, then add your blog  in the tabs on the next page. You need to go to your control panel and add your rss feed.

http://thehlmn.com/ fashion and beauty site, email your link, maybe banner too

http://www.dmoz.org/ This is a huge directory that you definetly want your blog in. Make sure it's in the right category or you will be rejected.

http://www.bloggerblackbook.com/bloggers/

http://www.topbabyblogs.com/cgi-bin/topblogs/accounts.cgi - just like top mom blogs

http://www.topmommyblogs.com/blogs/accounts.php

http://herblogdirectory.com/submit.php two levels to upgrade to for $5 a year or $10 for a month

http://bust.com/Girl-Wide-Web/ This is not what it sounds like from that title. I promise, no porn, just a really badly though out name. Click on the tab that says girl wide web then click submit blog in left sidebar

http://alltop.com/submission/ Another one of the top sites you want your blog in.

http://www.hotvsnot.com/addurl/info/?c=  super quick and easy

http://www.bloglines.com/

The Mommy Bunch - http://listing.thesocalledme.net/  - for mom bloggers

http://www.blogtopsites.com/

http://us.loadedweb.com/  There's also a free twitter directory you can submit to.

http://mompack.com/mom2mom/

http://www.mommyblogs.com/  - register and you can add your blog to your info.

http://themomblogs.com/blogs/profile.php

http://www.thefindbuzz.com/add_blog  - blog directory for shopping/review sites

http://www.wahmsthatblog.com/get-listed.php  for WAHM moms but they will accept blogs from all mom's, you can list your blog in three categories for free

http://csahm.com/blogs-by-moms/  blog directory for christian stay-at-home moms

http://www.sexyblogtop.com/  a site to submit adult blogs

http://geekyspeaky.com/links/

http://www.directorycritic.com/add-enterdetails.html  - this is for submitting directories, so if you have one on your site go ahead and submit

http://indexking.net/submit.php  free listing or $4 for a featured one year listing

http://submitblog.buzzerhut.com/

http://gowebguide.com/add.php  upgrade to a paid subscription to list deep links, $9 sponsored for a year, $5 premium for a year

http://www.boingboing.net/suggest.html  suggest a site for free

http://www.bloghop.com/account/index.htm

http://www.weblogalot.com/Ping / super quick and easy, just use your rss to ping them

http://honeylion.com/directory/addlink.php

http://www.a1weblinks.net/submit.php  upgrade to no reciprocal for $7.95 or featured for $12.95

Pay to Submit Blog Directories

http://www.blogsbywomen.org/ $5.00 for lifetime listing or featured listing for $30 for 3 months and $55 for 6 months

http://www.delightfulblogs.com/submit.php  $15 one time payment or $45 for 4 months featured with four other blogs at the top of your category and on the Delightfulblogs homepage

http://www.bloggingfusion.com/submit.php  $1.99 regular link, $12.99 w/ 3 extra link submissions, $39.99 yearly with 5 extra link submissions

http://www.bloggeries.com/submit.php  $39.99 one time or $54.99 annually for featured link

http://www.avivadirectory.com/submit.php  $49.95 for one year or $149.95 for a permanent listing


Top 100 List to Submit To- These are list that people started that you can submit your blog too and then as people click the link on your site it counts as a and  vote for yout site you'll move higher up on the list.

http://www.gotop100.com/directory/weblogs-and-xanga.html  - has around 20 list to submit too in this category

 http://bizwomenbloggers.gotop100.com/

http://thedomesticdiva.gotop100.com/

http://msbizbloggers.gotop100.com/index.php


Websites with Directories to Submit To

 http://www.zimbio.com/  - Online magazine, submit is in the left sidebar under "Citizen Journalism" join Wikizines to submit your blog post to or just use what they suggest, great site, ping your blog to import post, they advertise you blog post for you in the zines

http://hipmamasplaceblogs.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-submit-your-blog.html - you have to email your info.

http://momfuse.com/business-directory/  you can pay to upgrade to a premium listing or add a button to the site for $15 a year

http://www.today.com/submit-blog


Blogging Communities

http://www.blogcatalog.com/widgets

Blogged -  http://www.blogged.com/directory  blogging community, here is my profile if you want to follow me and I'll follow you back

http://www.blogher.com/

http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/submit_blog.html  also has paid listings starting at $8 or $60 a month by sponsoring a category on their site

http://www.bloggapedia.com/  free listing or featured listing for $49.99

http://fuelmyblog.com/  - search for MandaBlogsAbout and we can follow eachother

http://www.theblogfrog.com/Users/Home.aspx  search for manda if you want to be friends

http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/  sites not working so well, takes a while, have to claim blog with code


Search Engines

Bing
http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx


Google Blog Search
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping


Yahoo Directory

http://dir.yahoo.com/  - submit site is in small print on the top of tthe right side of the page

Blog Diretory List for Women and/or Mommy Bloggers

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Blogging Communities

I'm sure that most of you know what a blogging community is. It's a great resource for all bloggers to gain and/or share information about your blog and blogging in general. You can join different groups for specific interest, including everything from listing giveaways to meeting other bloggings in your area. You can find tons of great ideas and also find a lot of very nice people.

I have a pretty nice sized collections of blogger communities that I am a member of and I wanted to share my list with everyone. Whether you're a newbie or you have years of experience there is always something new to learn. Take a while, sit back and relax with your laptop and check out all of the places listed below. I know you will find these sites very usefull and full of information.

If you join any of the sites send me a friend request, I'm mandzp81 or mandablogsabout. :)

Ning Network Blogging Communities


Mom Bloggers Club
http://www.mombloggersclub.com/


mom blog network
http://www.momblognetwork.com/content/the-mamahood-ning


book blogs
http://bookblogs.ning.com/


the beauty blog network
http://beautynetwork.ning.com/


Blissfully Domestic
http://blissfullydomestic.ning.com/groups


20 something bloggers
http://www.20sb.net/?xg_source=badge

amomentreprenuer
http://www.amomentrepreneur.com/


momfuse
http://momfuse.ning.com/main/authorization/signIn?target=http%3A%2F%2Fmomfuse.ning.com%2Fforum


global influence
http://momfluence.ning.com/?xg_source=badge


momspark
http://momspark.ning.com/groups


momlogic
http://community.momlogic.com/groups?page=16


mombloggers
http://www.mombloggersclub.com/?xg_source=badge


mommy pr
http://mommypr4bloggers.ning.com/


mompreneur cafe
http://www.mompreneurcafe.com/?xg_source=badge


mom's most wanted
http://momsmostwanted.ning.com/?xg_source=badge


network for moms
http://www.networkforwives.com/?xg_source=badge


role mommy
http://rolemommy.ning.com/?xg_source=badge


the giveaway bloggers network
http://giveawaybloggers.ning.com/


the launch pad from momdot
http://momdotbloggers.ning.com/?xg_source=badge


The PR Place (product Review)
http://productreviewplace.ning.com/?xg_source=badge


community of moms
http://www.communityofmoms.com/page/twitter-mama-directory


twitter moms
http://www.twittermoms.com/?xg_source=badge


blog followers
http://blogfollowersgroup.ning.com/forum/topics/welcome-start-here?page=4&commentId=4479808%3AComment%3A201&x=1#4479808Comment201


thrifty fifty
http://thriftyfifty.ning.com/


bloggers united
http://bloggers-united.ning.com/


mommies cafe
http://mommiescafe.ning.com/forum


the one fantastical
http://forum.theonefantastical.com/index.php


moms wahm place
http://momswahmplace.ning.com/


working at home and loving it
http://wahm-network.ning.com/


the winning woman network
http://thewinningwomannetwork.com/


the wahm cafe
http://wahmcafe.ning.com/


woman to woman network - christian women
http://womenbreakingfree.ning.com/?xg_source=badge


work at home divas
http://workathomedivas.ning.com/


smart girl politics
http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/group/thefoundingsistersblognetwork


world wide bloggers network
http://worldwide-bloggers.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?target=http%3A%2F%2Fworldwide-bloggers.ning.com%2F%3Fxgi%3DdX4q7Kl%26xgkc%3D1


the urban hotspot
http://theurbanhotspot.ning.com/


twitter moms
http://www.twittermoms.com/


Blogeter
http://blog-marketing-network.ning.com/


Momnet
http://momnet.ning.com/ Nok ids, no dads.


Power of Women Exchange
http://powernetwork.ning.com/groups


Free Craft Marketing
http://freecraftmarketing.ning.com/profiles/members/%20Artisans, Crafters, Etsyans and Bloggers with webpages, to network together & trade links & traffic!


The Mom Stop
http://wwwmomstop.ning.com/


Mom TV
http://community.momtv.com/service/searchEverything.kickAction?as=101589&mediaType=group&sortType=recent&includeGroups=on&d-7095067-p=1


working moms
http://www.workitmom.com/


Other Blogging Communities


Fuel my Blog - join, get a widget, make friends, vote
http://www.fuelmyblog.com/


Blog Lovin'
http://www.bloglovin.com/en


My Blog Log - need Yhoo account
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/


blog engage
http://www.blogengage.com/groups.php


blog frog
http://theblogfrog.com/

How to Put a Retweet Button on Your Post in Blogger.

I decided that I would install a retweet button on my post in hopes that people would start tweeting more of the things that I write and the giveaways that I have. It was pretty easy to do after I figured out a few problems that you guys won't have to deal with because I worked it all out. After figuring out all of my coding I decided to try it out.

If you were thinking that you don't really need this little Tweet button I promise you that you will be so glad you installed it - even if people don't use it. It literally takes two clicks to Tweet about whatever post it is your on, that's it, TWO CLICKS! I sent out a Tweet message about all of my giveaways in like three minutes! I couldn't believe it. You don't even have to type anything, just click the Tweet button, the message is already there waiting for you, click again to send. You're gonna save so much time with this button. I'm actually sending out so, so, so many more Tweets on my post now cause it's so quick and too simple.

Sooo, I'm guessing that you are super ready for some simple, 'Manda-style instructions - yes? You are in for such a treat because this one is madd easy! There are special instructions to go along with this if you are using a Blogger classic template, these special instructions are marked with a *

First, you need to go into your layout on your dashboard and go to edit html. Check the little box to expand widgets template.

You need to find a piece a code that looks like this:  <div class='post-header-line-1'/>
(Mine was located about the middle of the page but all codes are gonna be different)

*If you are using a Blogger classic template you need to locate this piece of code: <$BlogItemBody$> You also need to change the retweet button code that I've given you below a little bit.
 Change this: <data:post.url/> to this: <$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$> in the code below. After you change that piece in the retweet button code, place the retweet button code above this piece of code in your template: <$BlogItemBody$> That's it, you're all done and your classic blogger template is updated with a sweet retweet button.

Here is the code that you will need to insert at the the end of that line of code you just found. See where it says 'PUT YOUR TWITTER USER NAME HERE', you guessed it, you have to put your twitter user name there. Make sure you leave the apostrophe before and after your Twitter user name. Here's an example using my Twitter name: 'raleighexaminer'

Retweet Button Code:

<div style="float:right;padding:4px;">

<script type="text/javascript">
tweetmeme_url = '&lt;data:post.url/>';
tweetmeme_source = 'PUT YOUR TWITTER USER NAME HERE';
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script>
</div>

That's it! Save your template and you now have an awesomely quick and easy way to Tweet all of your post.

If you've looked it over and over and over again and you just can't find that piece of code then find the very first time that this code is used: <data:post.body/> It has to be the FIRST occurence of the code. Place the retweet button code directly in FRONT of that piece of code. That's it, you're done!

How to Make a Link with HTML

I thought that I would make a post about how to make links because I've noticed that a lot of people do not know how to make them. It's actually very easy once you know how to do it. All you need is a few pieces of HTML code. I'll show you how to make  a clickable text link and also a clickable picture/image link using HTML code.

How to Make a Link with HTML
Making a clickable link is very easy. You need to use the <a href= to start the link, then begin with a " and insert the url or web address that you want the link to direct to when it is clicked. Place another " at the end of the address and end it with a > Next you need to insert the words that you want someone to click on as the link. You can use the name of the site, the page, or the actual url or simply type 'click here'. It's your decision what text you want to use for your link. After you type you link text you simply end the link with> That's it - now you have a clickable text link.

Here is an example of what the link will look like:

<a href="url you want link to direct to"> text that you want to click on</a>

How to Make Your Link Open in a New Window
The link above will open in the same page which means when you click the link it will open in the current window so you will have to push the back button to get to the original page you were looking at. You can add a simple piece of code to a link to make it open in a new window. Having the link open a new window means that the original page you were looking at when you clicked the link will still be opened in a window behind the new window. I like to have links open in new windows so that anyone that clicks one of my links doesn't lose the original page that they were on. To make a link open in new window you will need to add to the html code of your link right at the end of the url address in the begining of your code.

Here's an example of what the code should look like:

<a href="URL you want link to direct to" target="_blank">Text you want to display as link</a>

How to Make an Image into a Link with HTML
To use an image as your clickable link, such as your blog button, a photo or an image you will need to add another piece of code after the URL at the begining of the code where you want the link to direct to. You will need to have the image saved online in order to have a URL for the image source. The easiest way to do this is to save your images on PhotoBucket.com

Here's an example of what your code will look like. If you don not want the link to open in a new window you can take out that part of the code, simply remove this target="_blank"

<a href="URL you want like to direct to" target="_blank"> <img src="URL where the image is located"> </a>

How to Center Images with HTML
If you want to center the image on the page all you have to do to insert another little piece of code. Just insert <center> in front of img src= and then insert </center> at the end of the image source.

Don't forget the first " and the last " when you insert any URL's into the code.

display HTML code in a scrollable box

I've been trying for a few days to get one of those little scroll boxes with the HTML code for my button up on the site. I know that I am not the first one to have a hard time figuring this out because I found a lot of different sites that claimed to explain it. I've been trying for three days to do this so obviously all of these sites do not make it clear. I decided that I would do a quick write up of exactly what I did to get the little scrollable box to finally appear on my site. First of all you need to copy the script for the scrollable box and place it into a HTML widget box. (I'm using blogger) Here is the script that you need for the box:

<div style="width:200px;height:100px;overflow:auto;
border-width:2px;border-color:000000;border-style:solid;">
Your content goes right here.</div>

The above code will display like this:

Your content goes right here.

Now, see where is says:
="width:200px;height:100px;
You can change these numbers to whatever size you need to fit in your side bar or content area.

200px by 100px is a normal single side bar size
125px by 100px is the size of a normal button
426px by 100px is the normal size of the main content area of a blog

Once you have determined the size of your box it is time to insert the HTML code that you want to display. See where it says, "Your content goes right here." You guessed it, that is where you will put the code that you want to display.

Delete "Your content goes here", and put a couple of spaces between the last > on the left and the first < on the right. I find it easier if you put the extra spaces so that you don't change the wrong part of the code. Now, paste your HTML code with the spaces seperating it from the code for the scroll box. In order for your HTML code to be displayed properly you will have to change each of the < and >. You are only going to change the < and > that are part of the HTML code that you want to display inside the box. The < and > that are in the code for the actual scroll box will need to stay as they are.

Okay, so all the < in the code you want to display need to be changed to & l t ; (do not include the spaces) and then change all the >'s to & g t ;(do not include the spaces). This way the code will be displayed the proper way without being changed to what the code instructs the computer to do. So, what that means is:
change < to & l t ; (do not include the spaces) change > to & g t ; (do not include the spaces)
You are only going to change the < and > in the code that you are trying to display inside the box, NOT THE < AND > IN THE CODE FOR THE ACTUAL SCROLLABLE BOX.

You should now see the scrollable box on your site with the HTML code that you inserted inside of it.

I hope that this makes things easier for some of you because I had such a hard time figuring out how to do this. Hopefully I explained it for you guys.