How Musicians Can Use Podcasts to Publicize Their Music

As a musician, one of the best ways to start becoming successful in the music business is to build up a fan base.

You need to get your music out there so people can start listening to it and enjoying it. Publicizing your music is extremely important, and while ten years ago it may have been a difficult task, technology has afforded you some very simples ways to get started. One new way that you can start getting your music out there is by using a podcast. Podcasts are excellent ways that you can inexpensively and quickly get your music out there to the public, which is extremely important to your success as a musician.

What Exactly is a Podcast?

First of all, you may be wondering what exactly a podcast is. Basically, a podcast is a type of audio file that is usually created in a mp3 format, and after the file is created it can be uploaded to a server by way of Really Simple Syndication (RSS). You can put anything you want on this type of audio file, whether it is a type of radio show, or even clips of you performing your music. Once a podcast is uploaded onto the internet, it then allows people to use their computers with specialized software to download the file so they can listen to it on their own. They may be able to listen to it on their computer, an mp3 player, or even on their iPod as well. Even though the terms sound a bit technical, the process is an easy one that gives you a great new way to get your music out there to others.

How to Create a Podcast

Believe it or not, creating your own podcast is really quite simple. The following are five simple steps that can help you easily create your own music podcast.

1. Create the Content - The first thing you need to do is to create the audio content for your podcast. It really does not matter what type of platform you use when creating your audio content; however, it is important that you save it in the maximum quality possible so you have a great copy of what you have created. This is especially important when you are dealing with music.

2. Convert to MP3 - Once you have created your audio content for the podcast, you will need to convert the files to mp3 files, since they are the most used type of files for podcasting. When converting your audio files to mp3 files, you will probably want to use 128 stereo bit rate in order to get the best sound, since you are dealing with music, then save it as an mp3 file.

3. Upload the MP3 - After you have created your mp3 file, then you are ready to upload the file to the server. Once they are uploaded, be sure to test them to be sure that they are working.

4. Create the RSS File - Next you will need to create an RSS file, which will describe your pod cast and serve as the link to your mp3 file. You can use a text editor to create this file, and usually it is best to include the title of the file, the link, and a brief description of the file as well.

5. Publish the File - Once you have the RSS file created, just transfer it to your web server, and be sure to validate it using an RSS validator, which you can find online. If it works right, then you are ready to publish the RSS file.

Equipment You Will Need

In order to be able to do a pod cast, you will need to have the right equipment available. First of all you will need to have the right equipment available to suitably record your music. You may be able to purchase software for your computer to do this, or you may want to use a mixing board with a CD burner to do so. You can use computer software to edit your music and to change the levels to make sure that your music tracks sound the best as well. Also, you will need a program to help you convert your music into mp3 files, such a MusicMatch. More than likely, you will also need software that will help you upload your mp3 and RSS files as well.

Where You Can Send Your Completed Podcast

If you do not have your own place to put your podcasts, you can actually find free hosts that will allow you to upload your podcasts to their servers as well. Once you have finished your podcast and you have it online, there are a variety of directories that you can send it to in order to get some exposure. There are many available free directories that will help you with publicity so you can get your podcasts out there. Soon people will be listening to your music, and before you know it you may have a broad fan base all across the world due to using podcasting to publicize your music.

Get Started Blogging

As the internet grows so to does the amount of people wanting to be a part of it. In the past it seemed a person had to have a good knowledge of things like html or JavaScript before they could even think of putting up their own business or personal webpage. Over time it became easier as both web hosting providers and software companies developed ways for the average joe to have a presence on the internet. Things like wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) web site builders are now freely
available, the price of web hosting is very affordable and the speed in which you can create and upload a website has jumped dramatically.

As time goes on it gets easier an easier for people to develop a presence on the internet and now with blogs so readily available even those that were a little scared at the thought of having to create and maintain a website can have a blog up and running within minutes; with no need to worry about html, ftp or the time required to make a new page every time you had something else you wanted to add.

While many people consider blogs to be nothing more than an online journal in reality they are so much more than that. From those that use a blog to share their daily rants and rambles to those that use them to earn a living blogs are becoming much more versatile and easy to use.

By either joining one of the many free blogging sites or setting one up on your own domain and hosting you can have your blog working for you within minutes. Once you have your blog set up you can then easily build your blog one post at a time.

Depending on what avenue you wish to take blogs can earn you an income by adding a variety of income streams, they can help generate business and traffic to both your online and offline business, recreational activities or charities etc through writing promotional posts, or they can be used to share your thoughts and feelings on a with others.

The popularity of blogs and other social sites has truly opened the internet to people all over the world, so the next time you think about building your own website but are worried that it might be too hard try a blog; you might be surprised at how easy and how much fun it can be.

Hiring a Freelance Content Writer?

This is a question that pops up from time to time in various forums. Along with many SEO-related questions, the possible answer seems to be "It Depends". Many companies these days write content themselves but this is not a wise option.

Try to hire a content writer, as he is the one who is specialized in this field. He will provide the best quality content to your website and even make it engrossing. Content is an online king and everyone wants to have a quality content on their website. Even the search engines focus on quality content while indexing. Uploading good content on your site is a form of search engine optimization only.

Majority businesses don't have time to write content for their websites. That's why they hire a professional content writer. But this doesn't mean you simply hire anyone without knowing his depth of knowledge. Currently a content writer has to cater three different languages; those are USA English, UK English and Australian English. You will be asking, what's the difference among all three, as they all are English. Well the difference and that too a major one.

A content writer has to be alert while writing content for any website. Before beginning with any project it is wise to know demographic profile of the website he is writing content. After knowing this, the next task is research. He should probably run across various websites for getting the best reference material. Never forget that English is not the first language of the content writer (If you outsource content writing in India). Still you can find content writers having a firm command over language, vocabulary, and usage of words.

Indian content writers are very popular round the globe, as they not only provide quality work but are easily affordable too. With the changing trends now you can even get SEO advice or knowledge from Indian content writers. For finding a content writer, the best place is Google. Just perform a simple search by typing "Content Writing", "Content Writing in India", and "Content Writing India" in not just Google but also in Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista. You will be amazed by seeing the staggering result.

Before you hire a content writer do some research to get the best professional for your job. Try to see some samples of their work preferably online. He should also possess SEO knowledge and can devote enough time to you. Your chosen content writer should respond fast and its rate should suit you.

Try to keep these points in mind and applying them should help you immensely in your climb to the top of the SERPs.

Article Writing - How to Get Over Writer's Block

The worst of the problems a writer can face is a writer's block. It is a situation where a writer is willing to write some thing and he or she has the idea as well but he or she is not able to actually sit down and write the words. Most of the times the writers are ready with the idea and they even are able to write down the pointers, but writing down the actual stuff sometimes seems impossible to them. This is a very serious problem which many of the writers face once or more than once in their writing career. This can be very embarrassing for a writer. It may harm his or her repute as a writer. There have been incidents that very famous writers fail to come up with anything new just because they are facing a writer's block. While you are writing articles same thing can happen to you.

The reason behind having a writer's block may be that you have been doing too much of writing. Your brain may be saturated by now and it needs a break. If the stress is the reason behind this block, you will be out of this block by taking some time off. A vacation may be a very good idea. If this does not work for you than the other idea is to start reading diverse kind of subjects. That will open your thinking lines and will help you in creation of ideas. Some times the writers face such a serious problem that they are even not able to come up with any new idea. Reading may help in this situation.

Marketing Your Blog Outside Of The Web

I think its important during the first few weeks or months of your blog to get a few people you know to check it out. This helps to not only raise your commitment level but also to establish a bit of readership. These people being your friends, will probably know to believe you, being that glowing bundle of knowledge you are about that subject, and will also not be afraid to hold you accountable for any lapses in writing or fact checking. Friends are great, but sometimes even better are other people in your community or people that you are professionally acquainted with. For instance, I am the president/general manager of an IT consulting firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. I've been doing this for a while, so I have a list of literally hundreds of clients to use at my disposal. I fired an email off to them, and within a few days, increased my initial traffic by 200%. This may or may not have been normal, as many of my clients are small business owners and are by nature, interested in multiple streams of income and other ways to monetize their time. So if you belong to any entrepreneurial minded organizations, be sure to take advantage of that link.

Now that you've exhausted your personal and professional contacts, it's time to move outward a bit and start advertising to people you don't know. There are two methods for this, direct and indirect. If you were in the gas station buying a soda, and heard someone talking about blogging, or something appropriate and were to suggest your blog to them, that would be considered direct. Indirect is something impersonal, like a bumper sticker, cleverly made t-shirts, yard signs etc. Being in my business (the IT consulting business), I've learned that direct marketing often yields stronger results, as you can throw a bit of personality in to the mix. People like comfortable relationships , i.e.: the happy cashier or the friendly free software giving computer guy. Often times, if the person you're speaking with is not in need of your services or services provided by your blog, they'll be happy to refer you to a friend or family member that is, whether they disclose this or not. So it is important that you treat every person you engage in conversation as a potential customer, regardless of their level of interest.

The traditional print methods of advertising probably won't do a whole lot for you, unless you are also offering services to local buyers. If you had a blog focusing on SEO, you could offer custom designed websites to local businesses with a guarantee of excellent search engine placement. In this case, the blog would be great to refer people to, as this would help establish your credibility as a service provider. Just be sure to think carefully about any purchases and calculate an estimated ROI and see if it's a viable option. If you're unsure about how to do that, contact the company selling the ads or services, they'll be able to provide you with statistics.

If you're going to commit to a blog or website, commit to it by forming a company. The easiest way of doing this would obviously be sole proprietorship, or possibly DBA, but as with everything I'm involved in, I recommend LLC. They're so easy to file these days, and have great liability benefits, as well as taxation benefits (over the inc that is…), that I'd recommend them to almost anyone for any purpose. Do be careful if you're a single member LLC, as this has a hard time holding up in court, since its organization is so close to that of a sole proprietorship. It isn't that bad to own your own business, just make sure to buy something like Quickbooks or Peachtree to help keep the books. I wouldn't outsource this one until I was making well into the six figure range, (which I do, but still don't outsource..).

Anyway, just a few ideas on how to market your blog or website outside of the web. I'd like to hear some suggestions, so feel free to comment, or email me @ t dot godier @ gmail.com. Want more information or related articles? http://www.octoprofit.com

Saxophone Recording Techniques

It All Starts With You

Experimenting in the recording studio can be a lot of fun with many exciting things to do. When you get all the variables just right, it can inspire your playing too. Of course, even if you have a great mic in a great room and go through the best recording equipment, you can't sound too good if you have a terrible tone coming out of your horn. That's why it's important to take the time to get the fundamentals down before heading into the recording studio.

With a good tone in place, time well spent with good gear in the studio can make you sound even better, assuming you're working with an engineer who knows what a saxophone is… Don't laugh! I've done sound checks in large venues and had the sound engineer ask me if I would be using a mic on my sax! Run, don't walk from those guys!

These days, some good engineers may not have that much experience with a sax. Many may only have worked with bands that have the typical line-up of drums, bass, guitar, keys, and a singer. No matter what point of your career you're at, learning a few things about the recording process will help to make your efforts sound that much better.

Early in my career, I didn't pay much attention to mics, processing gear, EQ frequency's etc. Now I do. I am hands on in the studio because I want to sound good. I hear stuff I played years ago, and I don't like the way a lot of it sounds. Not what I played, but the actual sound… maybe it was the way the engineer EQ'ed it or had it sitting in the mix.
So, it all starts with you… but it could all end with the engineer!

Mics

The good news is that there are some very good engineers out there who can make us sound better. The first thing in an engineer's bag of toys should be the microphone.
One of the first big recording projects I was involved with was in 1988 with Canadian singer/guitarist Colin James, who was signed with Virgin America at the time. We went to Criteria Recording Studios in Miami to work with the famous Producer/Engineer Tom Dowd, who recorded Eric Clapton (Layla), The Allman Brothers, Leonard Skynard, and Aretha Franklin to name a few. We saw all the gold records of these artists hanging on the wall, plus others like James Brown (I Feel Good), The Bee Gees (Saturday Night Fever). All these songs we had heard growing up; it was overwhelming being there for the first time. But the best was yet to come!

After meeting Tom Dowd, I found out that he also had recorded King Curtis and John Coltrane, two of the most influential saxophonists in history, right there where we were standing! Now being a sax player, I felt I was in good hands!

His mic preference was the Neumann U87. This model came out in the 60's; I know he recorded King Curtis during the Coasters sessions of the late 50's and would have used the Neumann U47... for Coltrane as well.

These mics are still the industry standard, because they are a large diaphram mic producing a big, warm sound. They can be found in any major commercial studio, but not necessarily in the smaller project studios because they cost several thousand dollars each. Still, I wouldn't put the brakes on a session or recording project if these mics weren't available.

Today, companies are making really good mics for under $500. For the CD I just completed, Rock & Roll Saxophonist, I used several different mics; two were under $500 and one was $3000. The really good inexpensive ones are the Shure SM7 and the AKG C1000.

Pre-Amp

Directly in-line after the microphone is a pre-amp. This is just an amplifier which can boost your signal to the recording machine, computer etc. A pre-amp is the best way I've found to get that really "hot" sax sound. Basically, it has a level knob and an output knob. You crank the gain on the input knob until it's almost in the red, red being a no-no because that will give your sound ugly distortion. Just before the distortion is a fine line; you can experiment with it for the amount of boost you want in your sound. I've used it on the low setting, somewhere in the middle, and really hot. It all depends on the sound you want for a particular recording.

Compression

The next toy to experiment with is the compressor. I'm not a technical engineer (you may have noticed) but, basically, compression on a sax will create a ceiling for your volume level and bring every note up to that ceiling level, meaning that all your notes will be even with each other in volume. If you go overboard with this effect, you will hear it manipulating the tone, so again, you've got to experiment. Personally, I sometimes like a little bit of that in my sound; it all depends on the song. If you listen closely, especially with headphones, you'll hear how it magnifies things in the sax tone like breath, spit on the reed, and even little clicking sounds made by the note pads.

Equalizer

Even after beefing up your sound with the pre-amp and compressor, more body and sizzle can be added with the equalizer (eq).
For some extra sizzle or sparkle, I like to add some high end frequency, around 10k but you need to experiment here. You may get the right boost of the sparkle you want from 8k or 11k. If you use a good mic the boosts in eq won't need to be huge, just between 1 and 3 db's (decibels).

I never felt that my sax needs any more from the mid range frequencies, the midsas boosting them can give you an ugly honky tone, but often a little low end eq will help to round out the tone. Again, you need to experiment but I go in around 125 – 250 hz (killahertz).

Reverb

Everyone wants to hear some reverb as soon as they hear themselves in the studio headphones. That's because, reverb gives an immediate big, wet sound which can make your playing sound better and so might help you feel more comfortable during the recording session.

I've noticed reverb has been like fashion over time… different types and styles come into vogue; sometimes it's hip to use lots, sometimes you use almost none at all.
The original way to record reverb was to use the sound that occurred naturally in the room, and the amount you had depended on the size of that room. People still record like this today, and we still hear stories how some band went into a big old church to record or somebody's basement or bathroom to attain an amazing sound.

Plate reverb units are an artificial way to create reverb in studios.

Plate reverb is produced by vibrating big metal sheets. Obviously, this way of producing reverb made good sense cause, creating different room sizes without having to leave your own studio. These days there are many kinds of reverb due to digital technology, and every size studio will have a few good ones to plug into. The type and amount of reverb you use will depend on your personal taste, personally I use very little; if you can hear it, then it's too much. I like to set it so you can't pick it out of the sound but if you turn it off you notice that it's missing.

Delay/Echo

Delay or echo is the effect of repeating notes after the original tone is played. Like if you were to yell into a well, HELLO… HELLO… HELLO. When using delay I find reverb isn't needed and usually gets in the way.

I love this effect on my saxophone. The amount always varies depending on the music.
The short "slapback" delay is most identifiable in rockabilly music especially on the vocals and guitar. All aspects of this effect are controllable, from the overall level of the effect to the number of repeats you want. Sometimes a nice delay setting is the perfect thing on a sax, especially on a rockin' tune or a ballad. I used this quite a bit in my recent recording, here you can hear my sax with just a little delay and then with a lot.

Wah-Wah

Finally there's the wah-wah pedal. This is usually heard on a guitar. But did you know, that it was invented so the guitar could sound like a trumpet? When a trumpet player uses a plunger to get that wah-wah sound, that's the sound guitarists wanted to imitate.

Back in the 70's, I remember hearing some bands having a sax player and using a wah pedal on their horns. Frank Zappa and Steve Winwood's band Traffic come to mind.
Since those days, I hadn't heard it being used on recordings for a long time so I gave it a try on one of the tunes from my recent recording;

To use this pedal with your sax, just connect the mic cable directly into it and another cable comes out into whatever effect box you may have in-line. The pedal is moved up and down to create the wah-wah.

This was my set-up while experimenting in my home studio, but once in the mixing studio, we noticed some unpleasant intermittent "noises" and I had to re-do the whole sax track. That was bad news since I liked the existing one! The good thing that came out of this, was the engineer suggested taking 2 lines out of the wah pedal, one for just the effect, the other that only would have the normal sax going through it. This worked out great. Now, we could mix and blend the 2 channels and add or take away the wah-wah effect depending on how it was working in the track. I found certain notes or phrases sounded better with a little less of this effect and vice versa… more control, better sound.

Have fun experimenting with your sound in the studio. Sometimes using all these toys will help to get the sound you want, sometimes it's just one or two of them, and sometimes none of them are needed. Let the music dictate to what extreme you should use these effects.

Jordin Sparks Wins American Idol with This is My Now

The sixth season of American Idol was plagued with news of Antonella's photos, Haley's legs and Sanjaya's hair but nothing could be more important than knowing who gets the title American Idol following the steps of Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hicks. In the end, Jordin Sparks grabbed the title away from beatboxer Blake Lewis.

Jordin Sparks is only 17 years old and the youngest American Idol winner to date. She hails from Glendale Arizona and a child of a former NFL player. She won over fellow contestant Blake Lewis from Bothell Washington by garnering majority of the 74 million votes that came in for the final two performances.

For the final showdown between the singer (Sparks) and the entertainer (Lewis), 3 songs determined their fates. On the first round, beatboxer Blake Lewis performed his own arrangement of Bon Jovi's song "You Give Love a Bad Name". Jordin Sparks, on the other hand, chose a song from Christina Aguilera entitled "Fighter". Although Jordin showed her vocal ability, Simon Cowell called round one to Blake Lewis.

Blake Lewis sang his own rendition of Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved" for the second round and Simon criticized his song choice. Meanwhile, Jordin Sparks brought the house down by singing Martina McBride's "Broken Wing". Round two obviously goes to Jordin.

For the third song, both finalists would have to sing the winning song that has been chosen amongst 25,000 other entries in the American Idol Songwriter Competition. The primary objective of the competition was to raise the songwriting abilities and again letting America decide the finale song the American Idol winner would record. The winning song voted upon by Idol fans came from the final 20 entries that were narrowed down by Simon Fuller and his 19 Entertainment music staff. The song entitled "This Is My Now" bested all and was written by Jeff Peabody and Scott Krippayne of Seattle, Washington. 50,000 votes came in for the song from Idol fans. Blake Lewis tried his luck with the ballad but it definitely proved that it is not his cup of tea while Jordin Sparks breezed through the performance. Sparks even did tear up in the final notes of the song like Kelly Clarkson back in 2002 when she sealed her victory with "A Moment Like This".

Although Simon Cowell awarded Blake the best performance of the night with his rendition of "You Give Love a Bad Name", he and Randy Jackson predicted that Jordin will win the title. Paula was just being Paula when she proclaimed that both are winners. Cowell and Jackson were both right, as Sparks bested out thousands of American Idol hopefuls including beatboxer Blake Lewis.

So what does Jordin think about her new single "This is My Now"? She describes the song as perfect and relates to all her dreams and the process of getting there. You can download Jordin Sparks' first single "This is My Now" from the American Idol website and iTunes. The American Idol tour will start on July 6, 2007 in Sunrise, Florida with the top 10 finalists.

How To Get Massive Traffic To Your Blog

Content is king. If you have been in the Internet marketing scene for any period of time you would have heard this saying day in and day out. Every Internet marketing manual has this as its mantra and rightly so. One of the biggest problems people have when blogging has nothing to do with the lack of traffic coming to their site. It is a symptom of something more sinister. Bad content. Even worse then poorly written original content is content that is not original at all. This is the death bell for all blogs that want to be taken seriously.

You have to have unique content. It is the lifeblood of bogging. Every other blog is lacking in original content, you have to be different. Want to get people to not only read your blog but follow your word blindly and do your bidding for you? People will fall over themselves to do what you say if you do this. You just have to tell them what to do. This is the greatest idea, especially if you are pre-selling an affiliate program via your blog. Every one of your posts you write should give people an action that could be taken by the reader. That is, every idea you give the reader, they should be able to go and implement in their business right away. Please remember reading is the best way to sell a product or an affiliate product, especially in the Internet marketing arena is to give them a plan that they can follow and implement straight away and then give them the resources to do that with.

Giving people a plan they can follow straight away after reading what you wrote will give them that incentive to buy that recommended product from you instead of another affiliate. If you want your blog to be around for a while and you want readers to come in 5 years time and still find your content relevant to them, you need to make sure the content is timeless, whether they read it in 3 months, 3 years or 30 years. This not only means you do not have to keep updating your content every 6 months which will save you time, it also helps with other people who you may allow to use your content on their websites. They are sure not going to update your content for you. While you should be optimizing your posts and your blog for search engines, and I talk about this later, your main focus should be on writing for humans, not bots. Do not try and repeat your keywords all over your blog posts to the point where it does not make sense. This might work sometimes for search engine ranking and you may get some extra traffic, but they would not stay long if the content is obviously geared for search engine ranking. People have a short attention span and would not waste it on junk.

There is nothing worse then reading a blog with no personality. People think that they have to take on this serious. People like to read blogs that are conversationalist in nature. People like to read writing that is written at the 7th grade level. People do not want to read large words and hard to read sentences. People also like it when you talk to them one on one like an old friend. Having a unique personality will get you more traffic from people telling people about your site then any traffic building technique. A lot of people just starting out, especially in the affiliate marketing game write blogs to earn affiliate commission, and there is nothing wrong with that. What you want to avoid is promoting affiliate programs just because they pay out larger commissions even though the products might not be of the highest quality. Never promote a product you have never bought or tried yourself. You have to like and really want to tell other people about it.

You have to blog regularly to keep search engines interested, ping sites interested and even more importantly, people interested. You should post at least once a week, at the very least. Two to three times would be better. But make sure you do not post every day all day. This makes your site to search engines look like a spam blog. Also make sure you split your post times up. Some weeks post on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, other weeks post on the other days. One of the best ways to get a sudden burst of traffic is to write about something that is hot right now or in the news. This is a great way to get a sudden burst of really interested traffic. You can find out what is hot now by watching the news or use online services like Google Trends, Yahoo Buzz or Ebay Pulse. These sites give you lists of searches that are very popular online right now. Some of the hot topics right now are * Xbox 360's* Midterm Elections* Halloween* PSP One the best ways to get traffic to your blog is to become a big fish in a small pond. When you corner the market in any niche, you become an expert and a traffic gathering machine. Becoming an expert in the field is not that hard. Just post lots of really informative blogs, setup an opt-in list newsletter, maybe write a few ebooks. It is so much easier to become an expert in a niche within a niche. Trying to be an expert in a big field full of experts already is hard work.

Internet marketing is a niche, creating landing pages is a niche within the niche. Become the expert in the niche within the niche. You can do a lot to help your blog with search engine ranking. The first thing you can do is a buy a very keyword descriptive domain name. It really does help to have a domain name with the keyword your site is on in it. Do not forget about keyword density in your blog posts. It is important to use the same simple SEO tips in your blog as you would in any website. This is a great method to get traffic, just run some sort of contest for a whole month. One of the best ways to get free traffic to your website is via article marketing. You can however save some time by selecting a few of your better blog posts, editing them a bit, making them more to the point and submit them to article directories for a nice constant flow of traffic. While search engine ranking is important, getting people to your website and having them leave straight away is a waste of your time, so designing a website that is also appealing to the viewer and is easy to read is essential. Do not use bright colors, lots of graphics, tons of links or anything like that. Keep it simple. Make it easy to navigate and easy to find all your articles on your blog.

Also check to make sure all your links are working in your site. This is a great way to get not only more readers for your blogs, but recognized as an expert in your field. By posting helpful suggestions in forums in your market, you will get a lot of good attention.

1) Find forums in your niche

2) Read some of the back posts and see who the boss, who posts good content is and what the rules are

3) Start posting with informative information and include your little RSS byline at the end of your post or in your signature file Now that work is done for you.

Just enter the topic your newsletter is on into the website address below and you will find all the forums you could possibly want on those subjects. So how do you get reciprocal links? Easy! Submit your links to directories and add link sites. Here is what you do. Go to Google.com and type in "Add Link" "target market" then "Submit Link" "target market "If you don't know what I mean, here is an example. "Add Link" "gardening "Submit Link" "gardening "Do that exactly as it is typed and see what you get.... If you did it correctly, you should have a listing of websites that accept link submissions in your target market. If you want to keep getting more and more repeat traffic from loyal visitors, the best way to do this is to setup an opt-in list or newsletter or some sort of way to capture peoples email addresses. The best way to run a mailing list is to send out a weekly newsletter, but if that sounds like too much trouble, setup a mailing list where you email people every time a new post is made in your blog. Having an online newsletter is very beneficial to blog traffic. People will email your newsletter onto their friends and you will get even more traffic. Another great free way to get traffic to your blog is to submit your blog to all the best blog directories and rss directories.

The two major search engines you need to submit your blog to are of course Google.com and MSN.com. So are those websites that state they will submit your website or blog to thousands of search engines for free or a one time fee. Just submit your blog to.... Google.com and MSN.com Track back is a way of blogs communicating with each other. This is from Wikipedia.org "if a blogger writes a new entry commenting on, or referring to, an entry found at another blog, and both blogging tools support the Track Back protocol, then the commenting blogger can notify the other blog with a "Track Back ping"; the receiving blog will typically display summaries of, and links to, all the commenting entries below the original entry. This allows for conversations spanning several blogs that readers can easily follow." One of the best ways to get your blog indexed quicker in search engines and gives your blog pages more links to them is to link from your own blog. Every page on your blog should link to other posts and pages on your blog. Basically, every post will be linked to some where on your site. This is the simplest and easiest, yet one of the most effective ways to get traffic and highly quality targeted traffic to your blog.

Best Article Writing - How to Make More Profit with Article Writing

Besides running online businesses, it is very much possible to make a profit on the internet through online writing. To make a profit, you of course have to have a knack and a passion for writing. Besides this, there are a few other points that have to be borne in mind to succeed in article writing.

Traffic is one way of making money online. Once you manage to draw traffic to your website through your articles, you just have to wait for that traffic to convert to customer and clients for your services.

It is possible to generate traffic through article writing by submitting your articles to one of the many article directories on the internet. You then have to add your link to your website in the signature box of your article. With this, people who read your article and get interested in your product or service will make a click on the link to land on your website.

However, it is not advisable to put an article on your site, and in the directories as the search engines only show the article directories having your content, and your site article is lost. Instead write two sets of different articles, one for the directory and the other for search engines.

When writing articles, remember to write articles with shorter paragraphs and with easy language. No one is interested at turning to the dictionary for meanings when surfing the internet. So if you keep all these points in mind, you are sure to find yourself making a profit with your article writing