BWMagic's RSS List Building Ezine-What-are-tags?
BWMagic's List Building Newsletter
(Special RSS Edition) Jan. 31 - 2005
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Contents
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o Freezing Cold! Or the single most
important thing I learned from Willie Crawford!
o Getting in a Blogging mood
o Tags - Revolutionary or Just Folly?
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Hello,
And a warm welcome to all new subscribers!
How getting in the Blogging Game
Can Benefit Your Site!
o Freezing Cold!
Old man winter is a little grumpy lately,
in this part of the world. It's freezing cold
and we still have two months to go! Hope it's
a lot warmer where you are.
The cold weather keeps me indoors and working
on the computer. I am writing more articles and
updating my sites more often as a result.
Hopefully, I am improving as I go along.
Writing is not my first love! But I am getting
to like it!
Love it or hate it. Writing is the most
important skill to have on the web. Let's face -
most of what we do on here -- has to do with the
written word.
Until audio and video take over most of the
websites in the near future -- writing is still
the skill you have to learn. Like anything, the
more you do -- the better you become!
Reading over some of the pages I wrote two or
three years ago I noticed how my writing style
has changed since then. Everything now is focused
on 'benefits' putting the best benefits or
'what's in for me' -- up front in my articles
and web pages.
But I am still making mistakes - for example
one of my articles which I entitled
'How to Make Your Website Sticky' was
picked up by this site:
http://www.roypenfold.co.uk/index.php
And put under the heading:
How to attract repeat visitors - Make it Sticky
Can you see which one points out the benefits
more forcefully - same article but I made the
mistake of not pointing out the major benefit
of that article. If you write an article put
the major benefit in the title -- I've been
reading that advice for years but I still
forget it.
We don't write articles for ourselves, we
write articles for our readers. You better give
them a reason in the title or the first paragraph
or two - why they should be reading this or it's
goodbye without a second glance.
I believe the same thing holds true for your
website - give your visitors some 'benefits',
some 'reasons' to be on your site. Give them
some reasons to stay.
Writing is the key to success on the web.
I am a subscriber of Willie Crawford - have
been taking his advice for years.
Something he once said always stays with me.
I am not quoting him directly... but one of
the main reasons he stated why (he of all people)
became very successful as an affiliate marketers...
out of a whole group of marketers, with the
same tools, same materials, same resources, etc.
why it was him who became the 'super' affiliate ---
was the quality of his writing.
And we are NOT talking about grammar, syntax,
dangling particles, misplaced pronouns or sentence
structure.
But a much more important quality. One that's
harder to see!
That is 'there's an intangible' in your writing
people can pick up on -- they can instinctively
know whether you genuinely care about them,
whether you're genuinely sincere in your writing.
People can read between the lines... it's
something intuitive we have...whether you
realize it or not, your true nature comes
across in your writing.
Especially in a newsletter or blog; where
subscribers can read your stuff over an
extended period of time. Your true character
shines thru all those words!
That sincerity is something you can't fake...
people will pick up on it very quickly...like
spotting a salesperson's phony smile.
It's just something we have.
In forums, in your articles, in your newsletter,
in your blog, on your website...people are
judging you by your writing. Whether you realize
it or not -- that 'intangible' intuitively comes
into play and has a very important part
in your success.
Remember it the next time to write that article
or newsletter or blog post. Be yourself!
Just something to think about before you
write your next sentence!
My next article --- will be --- how to get over
writer's block.
Just kidding!!!
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o Getting in a Blogging mood
I have come late to the blogging scene
so I am making up for lost time!
What really got me interested in blogging
was not blogging at all but RSS.
RSS which stand for Really Simple Syndication -
I wanted to put it on my site so I took a
closer look at blogging.
I am really glad I did. It has meant a large
increase in traffic to my site.
I have seen a significant increase in my site's
ratings with Yahoo -- that 'ping' really pinged
for my site! (If you're wondering what all this
means just download my free RSS/Blog Guide:
download. )
The guide is 'entree level' stuff with a lot
of great links and resources. It will get
you started. Introduce you to blogging and
RSS - the sooner you start using this - the
better your site or online activities will
prosper.
It did something to boost my site's ratings
within Yahoo. Their robots call on your more often
and more of your site gets indexed... at least
that what I have found.
It has also opened up a whole part of the web
I knew was there but didn't think it had much
to do with internet marketing.
Boy, was I ever wrong in this case... especially
for link and keyword building - it is tailor made.
But more so than any economic gain from using a
blog - I like the idea of getting to read and
view different marketers in their own words.
It somehow humanizes their websites ... fleshes
it out with real feelings... it gives a real
glimpse inside their heads. Where they're coming
from. The real mc goy. Not just some perfectly
planned out sales letter or website.
If you don't have a blog ... start one. It will
also help to flesh out your site. Give it a
human touch. Help build that trustful
relationship with your customers.
Before we get too gushy ... if will also give
you a direct RSS feed to your customers... to
tell them about any product updates,
improvements, new products, etc.
A perfect sales tool if there ever was one!
You can start a Blog/RSS for free or you
can use a service like BlogID.
I have had my main site up for years now ...
but If I was just starting out ... I would
go with a webhost like DomainDirect which
gives us ezinearticles.com or ideamarketers.com
to get fresh daily content for your blog.
Pick articles based your site's 'keywords'
and build all those anchor text links to
your site. Google will fall in love with
your site!!!
There really is no reason why you shouldn't
start a blog. It simple, fast and free.
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There's another reason I am excited about
RSS and Blogs --I mentioned this briefly
in my last newsletter.
That's 'tags'.
Now this new way of accessing blogs may
just be 'flash in the pan' as they say.
Here and gone within a few months or it
could be the start of something big.
Read all about 'tags' in the following article:
Tags - Revolutionary or Just Folly?
Just another trend or something else?
Trends happen overnight! Some catch on fast
and explode very quickly into our every day use.
Most of these trends you can ignore as silly
folly or at the most fine amusement. Anyone
remember pet rocks, Farrah Fawcett hairdos,
or last year's killer fashions?
Others, you have to pay more attention to:
cell phones, digital cameras, mini-sites,
optin lists, or email.
Right now, there's another trend you
should keep your eye on: 'tags'.
What are tags? And why should you
care about them?
Tags are a way of sorting and linking
all that information in blogs and RSS Feeds.
It groups together all the information on
one particular subject.
It's a democratic 'search engine' for blogs.
Think of a 'tag' as a 'keyword' to be
used in blogging and RSS Feeds (Feed tags
are still in the works).
Tags have hit the radar lately because
Technorati, which indexes 4.5 million blogs,
started sorting blog posts by using tags.
They have created a folksonomy, drawing
tags from different sources, mainly Flickr.com
which sorts or groups pictures and from
del.icio.us -- where you create a tag
when you bookmark a page.
Or if your blogging software supports
categories - these will be recognized by
Technorati as a tag.
If you want to create a 'tag' it's very simple;
just place this code in your blog:
<*a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Computers" rel="tag">Computers<*/a>
(remove asterisks in actual code)
and you will have created a tag for Computers .
Click link to see example.
A tag makes it easier and faster to find
information on your favorite subject.
It gives you a cross section of real
views and opinions floating in the ether.
There are some inherrent problems in this
system; will the posts grow so quickly and
so large -- it's like 'finding a needle in
a haystack' or will you have to dig thru
a lot of muck to find the scattered diamonds.
Or maybe a ranking system will be put in
place but this goes against the 'democratic code'
of blogging.
Regardless, the traffic and marketing
potential of 'tags' could be very beneficial
to those who use it to their advantage.
A marketer with a product to introduce
or promote could aggressively target tags
as part of their advertising budget. As blogging
increases in popularity - it's something
to watch!
As a website owner - tags could be a great
source of targeted traffic. And the keyword
here is 'targeted'.
It's the kind of visitor you want coming to
your site or blog. It can only lead to a better
quality visitor. Similar to a visitor coming from
the major search engines. One that is really
searching for your information.
The next big question, how will marketers
exploit these tags to make a few bucks?
Everyone knows that's coming!
Will we have a 'tag search engine' that can
rival the quality of a Google or Yahoo?
Or do we need one?
As with any new trend - you never know how
it will play out.
Some interesting questions have yet to
be answered:
Tags are basically keywords for blogs - but
as everyone knows the quality of links to
these tags are not all equal. Will someone step
in and rank these or will they remain
democratic?
Just how will tags work for building content
or links to your site? How will the search
engines use these tags? How will marketers
and advertisers exploit the potential of
all this content and the content's viewers?
Will we have tag-spamming? (Just what we
need another form of spamming!) Someone flooding
these tags with thousands of links
to get traffic or sell a product.
Not to hype it too much but there's a real
'we're entering unknown territory' feeling
with blogging and RSS lately. How this one plays
out - is anyone's guess. There are countless
applications probably already in the works for 'tags'!
It could be the start of something big or
it could just fizzle.
In any case -- keep your eyes peeled to
that cursor! There's probably a tag on
the end of it!
This trend may just offer more than fine amusement.
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To Create a blog within minutes - visit this link:
RSS Report and Create Blog Guide.
Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of bizwaremagic.com.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource
box stays attached. Visit http://www.bizwaremagic.com/
for more simple solutions to your online marketing tasks.
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That was way too much stuff for this week, hope
you made it down this far!
And if you did all the best and have a great week,
Til later,
Titus
www.bizwaremagic.com
All of us learn to write in the second grade.
Most of us go on to greater things. Bobby Knight (1940 - )
