8 Blogging Advice Tips For Your Free Blog Platform

One of the easiest things you can do to start publicizing your business on the Internet is to set up a blog. There are many free blog platforms on the Internet, and the choices keep increasing. Below is a list of free blogs you can choose from other than just Blogger.com and WordPress.com:

– Blog.com
– Blogster.com
– Bravenet.com
– Flatpress.com
– Klatcher.com
– Lifetype.com
– Livejournal.com
– Moveabletype.com
– Multiply.com
– Serendipity.com
– Textpattern.com
– Xanga.com
– Tumblr.com

You can have a fully functioning blog up and running in five minutes or less with any one of these free blog platforms.

However, it can be somewhat difficult to find inspiration to keep your blog updated with fresh content once you have it set up. There is nothing worse than checking out a blog only to find that it hasn’t been updated for the last few weeks. A stale blog doesn’t show that you’re dedicated about your business.

The good news is that there’s a lot you can do to keep ideas flowing for your blog. Blog posts don’t have to be a certain length, and they can differ in style as well is in subject matter. So, here are some tips to help you come up with ideas to keep your blog updated regularly.

Blogging Advice Tip #1: Product Reviews

Look for products in your niche that you can test and write a review about. Give an honest, unbiased review looking at both the good and bad sides of the product, and your readers will be more likely to trust your recommendation.

Remember, blogging helps in building trust and building your brand. So, giving honest reviews will benefit you in the long run, even if you put some people off from buying the product.

Writing product and book reviews can also be a great way to monetize your blog. Add your affiliate link that takes the reader from your blog to the product sales page. If they buy the product or book from your link, you’ll earn a commission for that sale.

Blogging Advice Tip #2: Book Reviews

Get in the habit of reading books related to your industry and writing reviews about them on your blog. Sign up to Amazon.com as an associate, and post an affiliate link to the book you are reviewing on your blog.

As you write your product reviews, make sure you include both the positive and negative aspects to build trust with your readers.

Blogging Advice Tip #3: Website Reviews

Review some of your competitor’s websites and online business models. Yes, some of your traffic will most likely disappear to their websites, but this will also attract more traffic to your blog, and you’ll build up your reputation in your field.

Also, researching your competitor’s websites will give you ideas on what to talk about and some great ideas to improve your own website and business model at the same time.

Blogging Advice Tip #4: Lists

Lists are very popular on the blogosphere. Be sure to include list posts as part of your blog posts. A good list post will yield dividends for months or even years to come as people link to it or talk about it on forums and other social networking sites.

Blogging Advice Tip #5: Instructions

Instructional posts give detailed information about how to do something or other tasks related to your business. Instructional posts are especially useful ways to train your readers to get to know about your products and how they work. You will be addressing the readers as if they were already using your products, but of course many of them will not yet have become customers. This is a great way to suggest to your readers the value of becoming customers without directly selling to them.

You can extend detailed instructions over two or three posts. You can mix in other types of blog posts between your instructional posts if you wish, but be sure to link each instructional post to the next and the previous one in the sequence.

Blogging Advice Tip #6: Quick Tips

Quick tips are an especially valuable form of blog posting. The beauty of them is that they are short and sweet. So, you can post them in between your longer posts to provide some variety.

A quick tip type of post should not be any more than 150 words long, and some can be much shorter than that. Get into the habit of thinking up quick tips, or one-point snippets of information that you composed on your blog in just a couple of minutes. Quick tips are a great way to keep your blog alive when you don’t have the time or inspiration to write a longer blog post.

Blogging Advice Tip #7: Interviews

Interview someone in your niche and then publish the interview on your blog. A good interview will bring several benefits to your blog. Not only will it provide valuable unique content, but it will also build your credibility as an expert in your field and help you build traffic to your blog.

Blogging Advice Tip #8: Guest Blogging

Finally, invite other people to post articles on your blog. This is a great way to keep your blog alive and to populate it with unique content on many different topics and in a variety of different styles. Offer to provide some publicity and a link back to the website of the guest blogger. Armed with these tips, you should never run out of ideas to blog about on your free blog platform.

5 Tips to Creating a Free and Successful Blog

Anyone new to blogging would often ask the question “what is a blog?”. Well, “a blog is a webpage that is made up of information about a particular subject”. People use blogs to share information and/or make money online. Whatever the case, every blogger would want to have a successful blog which can attract readers and this is where most people find difficulties. In a nutshell, a successful blog is one that has all the necessary features that search engines love. For such a platform that search engines love, traffic is sure to be the next best thing. These features includes adding page titles, meta tags, page description and getting relevant backlinks pointing to your blog. Now, let’s take a look at some 5 tips to creating a free and successful blog;

1. Define Your Niche

The very first step to creating a successful blog is to know what your niche is. “A niche is basically what your blog would be about”. Be sure that your niche is something you have a passion for, can write about, and people are interested in.

2. Choose A Relevant Domain

One important aspect to creating a successful blog is choosing a relevant blog domain name. “A domain name is a name that briefly describes your website/blog”. So, if you were to choose a domain name for your blog, it is best to pick a name that partly describes your niche.

3. Specifying An Optimized Title

Your blog title is one of most relevant aspects of your blog because “the title of your blog is the name of your blog and it is what appears as the clickable link to your blog on search engines”. Before putting up a blog title, you’d need to do proper keyword research to get an idea on the popular keywords that people are actually searching for. Also, ensure that your blog domain also appears in your blog title. Google Adwords, Word Tracker or Market Samurai are great tools that can handle keyword research for you.

4. Put Up A Description

Every blog needs a description. Just as your domain name and title gives your visitor a hint about your blog, “your page description gives an insight on what your blog is all about”. The page description appears directly below your blog title on search engines before your domain link. Practice have shown that it is best to keep your blog page’s description in three (3) sentences and ensure that the keyword phrase from your blog title appears at least twice in your blog description.

5. Get Relevant Backlinks

If you want to rank high on popular search engines especially Google then, you’d need to get quality backlinks pointing to your blog domain. “Backlinks are links that point to a specific website or webpage”. Links pointing to your blog from external websites are more valuable than your own internal links. One of the most relevant ways to generating quality backlinks is by putting up articles and press releases. Search engines love articles and press releases so much because of their unique contents. You can also get relevant backlinks by bookmarking your blog domain for free on social bookmarking sites.

To crown it all, you will need to stick to a regular posting schedule so that your blog followers would be updated on what is new and when to expect your next post. The most important thing to remember is that you should have fun with your blog. This is a great way to express yourself so make the most out of it.

For more information on how to setup a successful blog, click here

New Small Business Lending Sources For Commercial Loans

It has become a routine occurrence for small business owners to be told by their current commercial lender that it will be necessary to seek another source for commercial loans and working capital. Although banks and other business lenders have made a pointed effort to portray themselves as lending normally, very few business owners are likely to agree that there is anything normal about obtaining financing from current business finance programs.

Because current commercial lending conditions have become so difficult, I published several earlier articles which addressed some of the problems that commercial borrowers are experiencing when they attempt to obtain working capital financing and commercial loans. For example, one of these commercial finance reports described the unfortunate possibility of firing your banker as one of several guerrilla financing techniques that might be required for a small business to survive in the face of extreme business banking conditions.

Certainly I would not advocate the guerrilla financing tactic of firing your bank and your banker if there were not suitable alternative sources for small business loans. At the same time, it would not be realistic to suggest that there are one or two obvious business lending sources that will solve the working capital needs for all businesses in need of help.

In reality the search for new commercial lending sources must start with an admission from a small business owner that they do in fact need to find a new source for commercial loans. Identifying the most likely alternatives can be accomplished in several ways but one of the most effective approaches will include detailed discussions with commercial loans experts that are experienced in nationwide business financing similar to what the business owner currently needs.

The best commercial finance solutions will depend on the business location, type of financing, kind of business, operating history and size of loan desired. Some of the most realistic sources for small business loans are operating regionally rather than nationally. A key point for business owners to remember is that there really are a number of viable and effective commercial lenders that are currently active in making commercial loans to businesses that are in desperate need of commercial financing.

In addition to the advice contained in this article, small business owners should not hesitate to review business finance resources such as The Working Capital Guide, a free online publication which focuses on working capital management strategies. Additionally commercial borrowers should quickly locate a commercial loans expert that is capable of providing appropriate help for their specific business financing situation.

Commercial Loan Lenders – How to Choose a Lender to Refinance Your Commercial Loan

If you are looking for commercial loan lenders to help you to either refinance a commercial loan or secure a new loan, then you will find a whole host of them on line. In fact, that is part of the problem in trying to select the best for your self: the choice sometimes it is better to have somebody do the leg work for you than trawl through all of the possibilities yourself.

However, before discussing how to arrange commercial loans or loan modifications, you should first be sure of why you need one and how you will finance it. A commercial loan modification can be expensive to arrange, buy if you find the right deal for you then you can generally make that money back within the first few months. To achieve that, you will likely have to trawl through a large number of online and offline lenders, and also have a thorough understanding of financial law and exactly how it applies to you personally, and your business in particular.

Not many individuals have the knowledge to be able to do that as effectively as it can be done, but there is no reason why you should not try. The benefits of choosing the right loan lender, that can offer you a deal to meet your needs, are well worth the effort put into finding one.

A major problem with commercial property is that it has recently been losing value in the same way as residential property, and so it is becoming increasingly more difficult in the current economic situation to refinance commercial properties. Many are finding the repayments on commercial loans difficult to meet, and missed payments reduce the chances of them being offered refinancing. So what is the solution?

Much depends on the problem, and while commercial loan lenders will help you to get financing for new commercial property that can currently be obtained at knock-down prices, they will be decidedly averse to offing refinance on similar property for the very same reason: the dollar value is steadily dropping. However, irrespective of this, commercial loans and refinance on businesses are still available if you know where to look.

In reality, loan brokers do more than that. They can find the right loan lenders and negotiators so that your interest rate can be reduced to 2%, and also understand the technicalities of such concepts as depreciation acceleration (also known as cost segregation) that can depreciate your assets much more rapidly and so reduce your taxable income and increase your cash flow.

A broker is the correct qualified person to approach if you are seeking the most suitable commercial loan lender or loan modification company to make your business more profitable by refinancing your commercial loan to meet your specific needs. Doing it yourself will not only take longer, but in the vast majority of cases will fail.