Most bloggers use amateur blogs as opposed to professionals, though I am not sure what a ‘professional’ blog is. If you are blogging for profit, whether as an amateur or professional, then you are best advised to run your blog from your own website. This involves downloading the blogging software to your web space.

This however is a personal opinion, and many people prefer the simplicity of operating their blog from a blog host such as Blogger, run from Blogspot, or Wordpress from Wordpress.com. There is little to do other than to register and make your posts. The only negative is a lack of individuality and formatting of the look of the blog and the tools that you can use on it.

The majority of people who use the internet for fun, as opposed to business, believe that they have few opportunities to make money from their blog. Their blog is to communicate with others, and to express their views online in a way that was not possible prior to around the turn of the millennium. Sure, blogs were in existence before then, but mainly in specialized applications, and it was sometime between 1998 and 2001 that blogging changed from personal diaries of internet ‘experts’ to what we now regard blogging as being.

However, anyone who has a blog (reminds me of a Cilla Black song) can use it to make money, or if that is against your ethos of using the internet for fun, then to ‘cover your expenses’ as our councillors, governors and other governmental individuals like to express it! As they do, you can cover your expenses very, very well if you utilize the monetization possibilities of blogs as they can be used.

To repeat, in order to do so to the maximum of your ability, you must run your blog from your own web host. Most amateur blogs are created using Blogger from the Blogspot site or Wordpress from Wordpress.com, but if you can run your blog from your own website, then you have a lot more flexibility in the content of your blog than otherwise.

In fact you get many more benefits other than the possibility of profit by uploading blogging software to your web space (I am now going to use the term ‘website’ for web space since that is more familiar to most people, though the terms mean different things). If your blogging software is to your own website rather than that that of a blog provider such as Blogger or Wordpress, you have a lot more flexibility in how you want to format your blog, and in the features contained within it.

Let’s look at what you get if you upload Wordpress, for example, to your own website. In order to do so you must have control over a MySQL database, that most good web hosts provide, and know how to use an ftp program. Otherwise it is plain sailing to upload the software. What you get is the ability to edit the CSS and HTML that determine the content and appearance of your blog posts, your sidebars, headers and footers. An immediate obvious benefit of this is the ability to add Adsense blocks that bring income to your blog.

Another is the possibility of adding links to any affiliate products you are promoting, and in fact links to anything you want your visitors to link to. These could include your websites or other blogs, in addition to adverts of various kinds. You can offer these in permanent pages, at the start or end of each individual post, or even within posts, though the most effective adverts and Adsense blocks are those included in the sidebars and footers of each post.

Another significant benefit that many bloggers find they get by downloading the software is that they can upload any of thousands of page templates for their blog that are totally editable. You can use Photoshop or a clone to edit the graphics, mainly the header, to customize it exactly for you, and can also edit the entire html to render the template unique to you. That is not possible with a blog hosted by the blog provider.

You can add any of thousands of widgets to your blog, another facility not open to you if you run a provider hosted blog. These widgets range from automatic SEO, thru auto XML site-map generation to blog pinging and literally any feature you could wish for. It is the ideal medium to advertise your product or service, and make money while you sleep or when you are on vacation. Imagine waking up in the morning, checking your bank balance, and finding a lot more there than when you went to bed!

That is blogging for profit, and it is not difficult. Amateur blogs can be used for profit as well as the professional blogs. There is no distinction if you are hosting your own blog. You can make money 24/7 while you sleep, and your widgets can also include an opt-in form that builds up your email list from those that are interested in your product or niche, but not quite ready to purchase. Keep in touch with them while you sell to others.

That is one great benefit of blogging.

What is a blog, you ask?  Short for “Web Log,” it’s an increasingly popular way to self-publish online. You can actually syndicate your articles, making this a great way for experts to showcase their specialized knowledge.

Think of a blog as a form of an online journal, with frequent postings and observations on items of interest.  Most blogs focus on a narrow subject area, which is ideal for experts.  Hyperlinks to articles, websites and other blogs make this a very interactive medium that encourages audience participation.

The Pew Internet Study estimates that about 11% of Internet users – translating to 50 million people – are regular blog readers. Technorati, which claims to be the authority on what’s going on in the world of weblogs, tracks almost 42 million blogs. 

Lawyers are active bloggers.  According to an online survey conducted by Blogads.com late last year, 6.1% of bloggers work in the legal profession.  The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association discovered that the majority of section members surveyed read at least one blog regularly and almost 20% publish their own blog.

The best way to understand a blog is to look at a few.  The Google Blog has a very simple appearance.  By contrast, some blogs in the legal market can be very sophisticated, like E-Discovery Law offered by Preston Gates & Ellis LLP or the ERISA Blog maintained by The Law Office of B. Janell Grenier.  Law Professor Blogs offers a rich network of links to law blogs maintained by legal academics. 

Three reasons to start a blog

1.  Blog software is frequently free or nominally priced

2.  Blogs increase your search engine rankings

3.  Postings get widespread distribution through syndication

If you like to write and have information to share about your area of expertise, a blog can be a great marketing tool. 

Three cautions before you start blogging

Look before you leap into a blog.  Launching a professional looking blog requires careful advance planning.  Here are some pointers to keep in mind:

1.  Create a strategic framework for the type of information you intend to publish

2.  Post new content frequently to keep your blog fresh

3.  Take advantage of syndication features to maximize the reach of your blog

Basically, make sure you have the time to maintain your blog with high quality and timely information.  Just because you get named as an expert on a big case is no excuse to neglect or abandon your blog.

Blog publishing services 

Now, let’s say you are interested and want to find out more about launching a blog.  One place to start is with your website hosting service.  Chances are you can link a blog to your website for a small additional monthly fee.  I host with GoDaddy for example, and they offer blog software for as little as $2.99 per month.

Leading blog services include Blogger (owned by Google), TypePad and Moveable Type (both owned by Six Apart Ltd.), and WordPress.  LexBlog targets the legal market with a full-service offering that includes strategic design, implementation and training.

Blog features encourage interaction

The beauty of the blog is the way it allows you to organize, archive and syndicate your articles.  Here are a few features you should consider:

.Archives  A calendar on the front page of your blog can link readers to articles posted on a certain date.  You can also organize articles by author or alphabetically.

.Blogrolls  Present your readers with a sidebar list of other blogs on related topics that you recommend.

.Email a friend  Add a button to your blog for easy emailing.

News Feeds.  RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) is a blog technique that allows you to easily distribute your postings to other blogs.  Interested parties can also come to your blog and quickly set up an automatic feed of your news for publication on their site.  Read more about feeds at Wikipedia.

.Reader Feedback  Allow your readers to comment on your blog postings to maximize audience interest.  Some of the techniques used for this purpose include trackbacks, pingbacks or comment moderation.

.Permalinks  Give your postings a static URL so that readers can easily share links or revisit a favorite posting. 

The Internet is in a constant state of evolution, with blogs being the latest example.  Have fun and happy blogging!

  http://www.moneybizhome.com/bloggingart

Article marketing is undoubtedly the most sought after internet marketing tool today. The reason behind this is simple; this internet tool is cost-effective and it really works! Aside from the fact that it can help you prove your worth to your potential clients, it can also drive enormous interested people to your website that can lead to increased sales potential.

Here’s how you can make money with article marketing:

1. Know and avoid the most popular grammatical errors at all time. What does this tip got to do with making money through article marketing? Nice question! Well, let me just tell you that even if your articles are informative, your readers will most likely to get annoyed if your content is full of grammar errors.

For more details go to: www.effective-contents.com in the end, these people will surely close your articles even before they reach your resource box and that would mean losing their business.

2. Write articles about your website topic. I’ve seen a lot of ebusiness owners who are writing about topics that are totally irrelevant to their website or to the products that they are selling. Don’t you ever to that if you want to drive only quality traffic to your website. If you are selling laptops, talk about the best available laptops in the market, do product review, etc. and don’t write anything about irrelevant topics like wedding gowns as these cannot help you attract those people who are most likely to buy from you.

3. Create a sticky resource box. When writing your resource box, make sure that you do not only use one hyperlink but two. Why two? Well, as you know having more hyperlinks in your resource box can increase your chances of getting your readers to click your links. For can visit to: www.writing-fast-cash.com for best result, I suggest that you use one anchor text and one absolute URL.

4. Honesty is the best policy. I’ve read a very informative article before that has compelled me to click on its resource box. The resource box said “for more information about this topic please click here”. When I finally click that hyperlink, I was taken to a product page — no additional information about the topic I was interested about, just the pictures of the product and how to buy it. As you would imagine, I got terribly annoyed. If you don’t want your readers to feel this way, make sure that you tell them what they can expect once they click on your resource box and be honest about it.