Have you pinged today?

Have you pinged your blog today? If you have made changes, anytime you make changes to your blog, you need to be sure to ping it.

Some sites that work great are Pingoat and Ping-O-Matic.

Give it a try.

Adsense Keywords. Maximize your income.

Top Paying Adsense Words. Where do you find them? How do you use them?

Here is a source list for your convenience.

Note: More sources will be listed in my next post.

www.keywordcountry.com
Predict your Adsense earnings before targeting a keyword!

Get access to :

6.5 Million High paying keywords

Traffic Building Keywords

High CTR Keywords

Thousands of Niche keywords from 600,000 markets Online!

Build loads of Traffic, Build more content and study the behaviour of keywords.

Video Tutorials

www.google.com
How does adding keywords affect AdSense for search?

Keywords are used by Google to make sure that we promote the most relevant ads and pages in the search results for your search engine. Good keywords are words and short phrases that describe any of the following:

The topic of your search engine

The content of the pages you want promoted

For example, a search for 'tiger' may yield different sets of results and ads depending on keywords entered.

stason.org

Here is a partial list:

$78.30 Chicago personal injury lawyer
$73.01 Chicago personal injury attorney
$69.17 lasik New York City
$64.27 New York personal injury lawyer
$64.17 New Jersey car insurance
$63.10 New York personal injury attorney
$61.64 Chicago personal injury lawyers
$61.17 mesothelioma lawyers
$60.74 Atlanta personal injury lawyer
$60.29 New York personal injury lawyers
$59.00 lasik Dallas
$58.68 New York personal injury lawyers
$58.38 Miami personal injury attorney
$58.25 what is mesothelioma
$58.08 best equity loan
$57.95 lasik New York
$56.88 whole life insurance quote
$56.75 New York car insurance
[...]
$53.46 whole life insurance quotes
$53.42 car insurance in New Jersey
$53.12 Las Vegas personal injury lawyer
$53.12 term life insurance quotes
$52.57 mesothelioma treatments
$52.41 equity loan rate
$51.78 equity loan
$51.50 New York personal injury lawyer
$51.29 equity loan rates
$51.15 fixed rate equity loan
$50.54 causes of mesothelioma
[...]
$45.33 Los Angeles botox
$45.07 new lasik
$44.86 fixed equity loan
$44.51 San Diego personal injury attorney
$44.19 125 equity loans
$43.58 mesothelioma cases
$43.57 car insurance in New York
$42.97 equity refinance
$42.70 asbestos and mesothelioma
$42.52 auto insurance quote
[...]
$40.47 cosmetic surgery Los Angeles
$40.04 personal injury attorney Atlanta
$39.67 car insurance California
$39.66 Oregon personal injury lawyer
$39.43 auto insurance
$39.35 Albany personal injury lawyer
$39.21 fixed equity loans
$39.11 personal injury lawyers
$38.84 Ameriquest mortgage
$38.31 auto insurance quotes
$38.19 mortgage refinance
$38.17 lump sum settlement
$37.43 cause of mesothelioma
[...]

www.xedant.com

A great resource for most profitable Adsense keywords.

Here is a partial list.

insurance
hotels
film
home
car
schools
acting
credit
cheap
digital
hotel
film schools
software
new
auto insurance
rental
free
travel
auto
video
mortgage
flights
editing
refinance
loans
UK
computer
buy
extended stay
home insurance
training
travel insurance
cars
debt
furniture

www.symbiotic.com
Here there is accessibility to Top Keyword Sectors. Here is an example of a sector.

Insurance Sector Keyword Data
Insurance -0.46%
Auto Insurance -0.18%
Insurance Quotes -0.06%
Quotes Insurance -0.06%
Auto Insurance Quotes -0.07%
Car Insurance -0.52%
Home Insurance -0.11%
UK Car Insurance +199.67%
Car Insurance Cover -0.04%
Car Breakdown Insurance -0.04%
Travel Insurance -0.21%
Insurance Travel -0.21%
Cheap Car Insurance -0.2%
Car Insurance UK +49.86%
Insurance Car UK +49.86%
Cheap UK Car Insurance -0.05%
Cheap Car Insurance UK -0.05%
Life Insurance -0.84%
Health Insurance -1.16%
Rental Insurance -0.11%
Columbus Insurance -0.3%
Insurance Company -1.12%
Motorcycle Insurance -0.45%
Progressive Insurance -0.53%
Business Insurance -2.91%
Pet Insurance -0.36%
Insurance Car Quotes -2.29%
Car Insurance Quotes -2.29%
Term Insurance -1.49%
Insurance Companies -0.98%
Term Life Insurance +146.98%
Life Insurance Quote -1.23%
Insurance Rate -1.71%
Liberty Mutual Insurance -1.49%
Newark Insurance -1.1%
State Farm Insurance -0.55%
Homeowners Insurance -0.61%
Insurance Medical -3.29%
Medical Insurance -3.29%
Dental Insurance -1.11%
Insurance Liability -2.32%
Liability Insurance -2.32%
Allstate Insurance -1.14%
Insurance Co -0.73%
Mortgage Insurance -0.96%
Insurance Car Quote +0.04%
Quote Car Insurance +0.04%
Insurance Quote Car +0.04%
Us Auto Insurance -1.07%
Delaware Insurance -0.82%
Insurance Life Quotes -2.56%
Iowa Insurance +0.54%
Home Owner Insurance -0.51%
Cheap Auto Insurance +46.25%
Insurance Comparison -1.44%
Insurance Quote Auto +30.21%
Auto Insurance Quote +30.21%
Boat Insurance -1.08%
Renters Insurance -1%
Bike Insurance -1.34%
Automobile Insurance -3.74%
Car Insurance Young -1.68%
Indemnity Insurance -1.74%
Insurance Online Quotes +48.93%
Health Insurance Quote -1.01%
Cheap Travel Insurance -1.12%
Whole Life Insurance -1.47%
Property Insurance -0.53%
AAA Insurance -1.24%
Term Life Insurance Quote -0.02%
Hartford Insurance -0.9%
Sterling Insurance -1.35%
Insurance Coverage -0.95%
Student Insurance -4.74%
American Family Insurance -1.44%
Classic Car Insurance -0.1%
Nationwide Insurance -0.09%
Leads Insurance -4.5%
Insurance Leads -4.5%
Health Insurance Quotes -1.73%
Insurance NY -1.54%
Insurance Lead -3.21%
Insurance Motorbike -2.76%
Toronto Auto Insurance -1.33%
Insurance Plans -3.53%
Car Insurance Cheapest -3.17%
Professional Indemnity Insurance -3.88%
Insurance Broker -4.54%
Health Insurance California -1.59%
Individual Insurance -1.52%
Auto Insurance Company -3.52%
Life Insurance Company -1.24%
Prudential Insurance -2.34%
21 Insurance -3.46%
Public Liability Insurance -3.18%
Health Insurance Plans -1.83%
Insurance Agent -5.96%
Farmers Insurance -1.67%
Individual Health Insurance -2.04%
Health Insurance Individual -2.04%

More on Keywords in my next post. I know that most of this information is via cut-and-paste, however, why reinvent the wheel.

As always, don't forget to ping!

"Blogsessive"

Someone clued me into a blog that may be of interest to others attempting to gain traffic to their sites.

It's called Bloggsessive and it has many interesting points.

Points of interest are the following.

Importance of blogging constancy...why it is important and how much it affects your blog.

How can you insure your blogging constancy?

What do the search engines say?

These are all important pieces of the pie when considering your blog.

Pinging Includes Submitting Your URL

If you have not yet done so, you need to go to the following sites to submit your weblogs or websites.

What is the benefit?

When you go to Ping-O-Matic or Pingoat (immediately after you post) you're sure that your sites get maximum coverage, or that you get more out of your ping.

Theoretically, this adds traffic flow to your site(s).

Here are a list of the sites (among others) to which you need to submit your URL. Note: Some of the other sites you need to post your URL on are listed when you use www.pingoat.com to ping. When the list processes the sites that have been pinged, keep the list and methodically add your URL to each of those sites for most coverage.

dmoz.org click here
note: they are partners with AOL and this is the only way I've found to submit my site to AOL.

AltaVista click here
note: go to the bottom directory on the main page...click on "submit site" and then do a "Basic Submit" (this is after you have already been registered at Yahoo) or the other submission areas can be costly.

Clusty click here
note: Click on "Add Your Site" on the left margin menu and look at the bulleted items.
If you try the first one, it redirects you to dmoz.org.
The MSN bullet works great, so submit your site there.
The Gigablast bullet works great, so submit your site there.
The WiseNut bullet redirects you to "Look Smart", which is another affiliate/advertising site.
Read the remainder of what Clusty has to say under the bullets




LYCOS click here
note: This is supposed to be one of the places you should submit your site to, however, I only found a way to put their logo or link on my site, which I didn't because I don't know enough about them. However, it is interesting to use their "retriever". I used it (along with its "hotbot" to look up my own name and it came up with places that others had submitted my articles. This allowed me to visit their sites and add them to my networks on places, such as StumbleUpon and Reddit.

Google is another site that is suggested for submitting your site to for their directory. When you click to submit a site on Google, it directs you to dmoz.org, which we have already discussed.

Each time you post, don't forget to ping.

Sources:
www.pingoat.com
Ping-O-Matic
www.dmoz.org
AOL
www.altavista.com
clusty.com
MSN
Gigablast
WiseNut
LYCOS

What is a "Ping"? Just Make Sure You Do It!

Stating upfront that Digg is my networking site of choice, here are a couple of other sites that are good as well.

Adding the StumbleUpon toolbar, makes it easy to submit articles and add to my profile (to keep articles on-file) that I have interest in. That's a pretty cool feature. However, word-to-the-wise when you're adding the toolbar...be sure that you don't have any tabs up that you are in need of keeping track of because you'll lose those as your Internet will re-boot (not your complete computer system...just the Internet, i.e., Internet Explorer).

del.icio.us seems, thus far, to be fairly easy to use. Interaction with my del.icio.us network seems to be the most difficult part. Posting items on their site is fairly easy. Adding people to your network is fairly easy.

Networking is a necessity in marketing your blog, increasing its traffic and attractiveness to advertisers. Additionally, there is not a "one-size-fits-all" networking site. Try a few sites to feel out which one(s) work best for your blog topic and traffic. It may take time to analyze which site(s) will be most beneficial and therefore I recommend using Google Analytics or Feedburner to analyze where your traffic is coming from.




What is the definition of "Ping (Blogging)"? This comes from Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_blog

"Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post (or updates an old one.) That is, the tool sends an XML-RPC signal to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material.

Open ping servers, like VeriSign's Weblogs.com and Yahoo!'s blo.gs, let other web-services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them.

Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material. A few of the blog aggregators that can be pinged directly include:

BulkFeeds, FeedBurner, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, Technorati, and Yahoo

In addition to open ping servers, there are an increasing number of proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.

There is a conflict of interest here between the blogger--who wants his new post to get the widest possible publicity as fast as possible--and the web-service owner--who wants his search engine or aggregator to have new blog posts long before anyone else. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers. As the blogosphere has grown, other ping "services" have cropped up, such as Pingoat and BlogFlux Pinger."

Each time you post a new article, be sure to use at least one of the ping sites to register your new post. This will drive traffic to your site and increase your rating on Technorati and Alexa.

Sources:
www.technorati.com
www.alexa.com
www.del.icio.us.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.digg.com
www.feedburner.com
www.google.com/analytics/
en.wikipedia.org

Ping Juiced By Networking

Stating upfront that Digg is my networking site of choice, here are a couple of other sites that are good as well. However, before I go into those sites, here is a new tool I discovered that is a companion to Digg that I thought I'd share with you... DuggTrends: mirror. Just check it out. If you want to see a great review regarding the basics on DuggTrends: mirror, click here.

Adding the StumbleUpon toolbar, makes it easy to submit articles and add to my profile (to keep articles on-file) that I have interest in. That's a pretty cool feature. However, word-to-the-wise when you're adding the toolbar...be sure that you don't have any tabs up that you are in need of keeping track of because you'll lose those as your Internet will re-boot (not your complete computer system...just the Internet, i.e., Internet Explorer). StumbleUpon has sent me many-a-visitor to my blogs and I abundantly enjoy my interaction with my readers.

del.icio.us seems, thus far, to be fairly easy to use. Interaction with my del.icio.us network seems to be the most difficult part. Posting items on their site is fairly easy. Adding people to your network is fairly easy. I have not received as many visitors through their site with my networking efforts as other sites.

Networking is a necessity in marketing your blog, increasing its traffic and attractiveness to advertisers. Additionally, there is not a "one-size-fits-all" networking site. Try a few sites to feel out which one(s) work best for your blog topic and traffic. It may take time to analyze which site(s) will be most beneficial and therefore I recommend using Google Analytics or Feedburner to analyze where your traffic is coming from.




What is the definition of "Ping (Blogging)"? This comes from Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_blog

"Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post (or updates an old one.) That is, the tool sends an XML-RPC signal to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material.

Open ping servers, like VeriSign's Weblogs.com and Yahoo!'s blo.gs, let other web-services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them.

Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material. A few of the blog aggregators that can be pinged directly include:

BulkFeeds, FeedBurner, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, Technorati, and Yahoo

In addition to open ping servers, there are an increasing number of proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.

There is a conflict of interest here between the blogger--who wants his new post to get the widest possible publicity as fast as possible--and the web-service owner--who wants his search engine or aggregator to have new blog posts long before anyone else. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers. As the blogosphere has grown, other ping "services" have cropped up, such as Pingoat and BlogFlux Pinger."

Each time you post a new article, be sure to use at least one of the ping sites to register your new post. This will drive traffic to your site and increase your rating on Technorati and Alexa.

Sources:
www.technorati.com
www.alexa.com
www.del.icio.us.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.digg.com
www.duggtrends.com
www.feedburner.com
www.google.com/analytics/
en.wikipedia.org

Register Your Site. Get More Out of Your Ping

If you have not yet done so, you need to go to the following sites to submit your weblogs or websites. What is the benefit? When you go to Ping-O-Matic or Pingoat (immediately after you post) you're sure that your sites get maximum coverage, or that you get more out of your ping. Theoretically, this adds traffic flow to your site(s).

Here are a list of the sites (that I know of) to which you need to submit your URL.

dmoz.org click here
note: they are partners with AOL and this is the only way I've found to submit my site to AOL.

AltaVista click here
note: go to the bottom directory on the main page...click on "submit site" and then do a "Basic Submit" (this is after you have already been registered at Yahoo) or the other submission areas can be costly.

Clusty click here
note: Click on "Add Your Site" on the left margin menu and look at the bulleted items.
If you try the first one, it redirects you to dmoz.org.
The MSN bullet works great, so submit your site there.
The Gigablast bullet works great, so submit your site there.
The WiseNut bullet redirects you to "Look Smart", which is another affiliate/advertising site.
Read the remainder of what Clusty has to say under the bullets




LYCOS click here
note: This is supposed to be one of the places you should submit your site to, however, I only found a way to put their logo or link on my site, which I didn't because I don't know enough about them. However, it is interesting to use their "retriever". I used it (along with its "hotbot" to look up my own name and it came up with places that others had submitted my articles. This allowed me to visit their sites and add them to my networks on places, such as StumbleUpon and Reddit.

Google is another site that is suggested for submitting your site to for their directory. When you click to submit a site on Google, it directs you to dmoz.org, which we have already discussed.

Each time you post, don't forget to ping.

Note: Refer to my post dated December 10, 2007 for information regarding pinging.

Happy Blogging!

Holiday Break Ciaos

It's been a challenge to keep blogging while my kids have been home from school over this holiday break...when is school back in session? Just kidding. I really enjoy my kids being home all day, but the balance gets way off and by the time you find new balance they go back to school again. I guess it's one of the fun challenges and the enjoyment of being a parent.

A site called Social Media Trader.com has some great information regarding social, news, and bookmark sites, statistical analysis of Digg "top" lists, and other networking information that I found informative and helpful.

Here is the link.

Click Here



I like this site because they include a link to each of the networking sites, as well as $ value. They are listed in order and it can never hurt to check each of them out.

I have a blog set-up in www.newsvine.com to test the waters there and enjoy those networking contacts.

I also use www.digg.com religiously.

I check into www.technorati.com weekly and my "authority" there is rising steadily...I have no idea how or why...I think it is due to the "ping" factor.

I check into del.icio.us and www.stumbleupon.com weekly as I find that my efforts to do more than that don't pay off for traffic to my sites like it does with Digg.

Regarding the other networking sites, it can be all-consuming to network, however I think that I may try out a couple of other sites in the next couple of weeks to see if the formats they use are conducive to my content and interest.

Here is a page with some interesting statistics regarding the "Top Diggers" from July on seomoz.org.

Click Here

I learn something more about the networking sites all of the time.

One more item for this post...

I ran across a great article about the top women in blogging that I thought I'd share. It starts with "A little while back someone said to me that blogging is a “man’s game”...I then made it my mission to compile a list of some absolutely amazing women in blogging."

Because I feel it's important that blogging is a level playing field for all sexes, I love this article at eXtra For Every Publisher(xfep.com)and include the link here.

Click Here

Keep blogging, even when the balance gets off, and the consistency will eventually pay-off and you will reach your goal(s).

Happy blogging!

New Stuff, New Tweaks

As you can see, I've decided to change to a different template.

I hope that it is agreeable with my readers.

The reasoning behind the change is my disappointment with the inability of the previous template's flexibility with regards to widget size and placement. Additionally, the previous template caused my blog archive list to stretch extremely far down the sidebar, as well as any other text that I added to that area of the template.

I'm not sure that I love this template because there is not as clear a division between posts, however, I do feel it is an improvement from the past template.

I may change my template at Issues On Call as well, as I am not extremely pleased with its appearance. However, I have been working with the colors and layout over the past week, as well as the ad layout.

I feel that learning, based on the option of these templates, gives me a greater understanding of the details I will desire to develop on my own web domain, when the time comes.

I hope that viewing my learning process helps others in their blogging journey and that it doesn't annoy those who subscribe to my blog.

Thank you for your patience.

With regard to Feedburner...I have been able to integrate AdSense with Feedburner and that allows for additional ads to appear at the end of each "newest" post. This location is supposedly a prime location for readers to view and curiously click, however, my results have still been minimal, which is frustrating.

If you look at my Issues On Call site, at the end of each post, Feedburner has placed the ads there as well, however, with the FeedFlare option (where the ad option was first located), there is an option to include things such as, technorati, sphere, digg, etc. This shows up on my Issues On Call site but somehow doesn't show up on my Max Your Ping site. So, this will be something that I'll need to troubleshoot...Ahhh the frustration of inconsistency...probably something I did or didn't do correctly.

Additionally, my Headline Animator from Feedburner continues to circulate the titles and dates of my posts, which in turn interests my viewers in clicking on the widget. From clicking on the widget the viewer can subscribe to my post...an additional subscription option. Within the Headline Animator section, you can choose to advertise your site through Headline Animator, however, the budgets begin at $25 per month...something most bloggers are not in the blogging business for. Certainly, right now, I'd love to see my $25.00 in a check to me...lol

I have added my name to another location as well...Newsvine.com. I'm just getting the hang of it, but it seems to be a pretty serious site...not one made for match-making, but for serious article writing...right up my alley (not that you can tell from the tidbits I write here).

Here is my link so that you can see what it begins to look like
Click Here

I am still getting to know the ropes. They are pretty strict. I'm trying to find out if I can actually add any ads to my articles through Google Analytics or Feedburner, as Newsvine uses different rules which include the longevity of the user and the amount and quality of your articles and interaction.

It is an interesting site. I suggest reading up on it as another option in networking, however...let me tell you that these are serious WORK, serious ARTICLE, serious EVERYTHING networking groups and it isn't like Digg. You really have to work hard to get people into your networking group.

My StumbleUpon Tool Bar doesn't seem to work half the time, so I have a hard time integrating with that site. Plus, it seems that it is not quite the serious networking site that I'd like to be involved with, however, from time to time I still visit it and check on my friends there and network a bit. It is somewhat between Digg and MySpace. You can have some people that want you to see their work and others that want you to SEE their work...if you know what I mean. So...just an FYI.

The Yahoo networking site is one that I have not figured out AT ALL yet. It is still in Beta and I think it has a long way to go. However, I have to say that I have given the others a better try so I will cut it some slack...for now.

Digg seems to be good sometimes, and then sometimes it seems to be too much work. I get Digg burn out. I feel that there is a lot of junk that gets "shouts" to my login, mixed in with some selectively "real" news, tech, interest, etc. type stuff. However, the catch is that if you don't respond to most of the people sending you shouts in some way, you may not get the response that you want when you want something publicized. Kind of crazy. I guess it is representative of the globe, however, and I take the interesting ideas that come over as, just that...interesting.

I had one day following the writing of an article Issues On Call - Article
where I suddenly earned $13.00 on adsense from a bunch of clicks and have no idea how they came about, since I have been doing the same procedure of sending out my pings and promoting my articles this whole time. That is the most I have earned.

The earning is becoming a great deal of frustration, as I am sure it is for many bloggers. I ask myself what I am doing wrong, what I am doing right, if my articles are good enough, if my articles are the right topic, if my production is sufficient, etc.

What else can I do? If someone who is reading this has suggestions and has seen my other sites, please let me know. I am in this for the long-haul and would love some tidbits of advice on earning.

I did receive some emails tonight from affiliate groups who I sent applications to showing that I am approved, however, it may take me a couple of days to go through all of their information to make sure they are legit. I will update you and let you know the sources once I find out the results.

I find myself staying up until all hours of the night (actually into the morning) working on this investment into mine and my family's future and so, since it is now close to 1am I must sign off, hoping that this is good feedback, based on my recent experiences and frustrations.

Let me tell you something about the frustrations...they only drive me more, knowing that I can succeed because I have the drive, ambition, and best of all the TECHNOLOGY :-)

Happy Blogging!

Optimize Your Ping Time

Optimize Your Ping Time...

Here are the sites that Ping-O-Matic will "ping" for you each time you post.

Weblogs.com
Weblogalot.com
Technorati.com
Feedburner.com
PubSub.com
Blogdigger.com
Moreover.com
Icerocket.com
Blogrolling.com
Bloglines.com (just added)

You can also choose to "ping" specialized services (see list on link)
Ping-O-Matic...Click Here

The advantage to this is your site gets more coverage faster than going to each of these locations separately. It helps to have an account set-up (free) at each of these locations to maximize your "ping" coverage potential.

Other "ping" coverage options are as follows.

Google Ping Service
"What is the Google Blog Search Pinging Service?

The Google Blog Search Pinging Service is a way to inform Google Blog Search of weblog updates. These updates are then published and shared with other search engines to allow them to discover the changes to your weblogs. In addition, Google Blog Search will add submitted weblogs to the list of blogs it needs to crawl and index."

Google Ping Service...Click Here

Pingoat
Pinging Services
A back-up to use in the case Ping-o-Matic is not available.
Click Here For Link
They "ping" the following, as well as special services listed on the link.

technorati.com
icerocket.com
weblogs.com
newsgator.com
blo.gs
feedburner.com
blogstreet.com
my.yahoo.com
moreover.com
newsisfree.com
syndic8.com
topicexchange.com
blogdigger.com
pubsub.com
coreblog.org
blogpeople.net
blogrolling.com
catapings.com
effbot.org
holycowdude.com
octora.com
veneblogs.com
bitacoras.com
technorati.jp
bakeinu.jp
blog-search.net
cocolog-nifty.com
bloggers.jp
blogoon.net
blogstyle.jp
amagle.com
gpost.info

Note: Some of the above list include foreign blog pings (not a bad thing). Additionally, I did not include in the list those pings which have been showing up as connection incomplete or error in connection.

The more exposure your blog receives, the more your advertising will pay-off.

You must remember that you need to sign up with each of the sites listed above that you would like to see yourself actually "pinged" at. They need to verify that you are, indeed, a true blog site. It is time consuming, but well worth the time.

Happy blogging.

Networking Sites, Ping Sites, What is a "Ping"?

Things learned...

I added the StumbleUpon toolbar today, which makes it easy for me to submit articles and add to my profile (to keep articles on-file) that I have interest in. I found that to be a cool feature. However, word-to-the-wise when you're adding the toolbar...be sure that you don't have any tabs up that you are in need of keeping track of because you'll lose those as your internet will "reboot" (not your complete computer system...just the internet, i.e., Internet Explorer).

Additionally, I've added del.icio.us to my networking group. Their site seems, thus far, to be fairly easy to use. I've not yet had much interaction with my del.icio.us network, as that seems to be the hardest part. However, I have just begun using them and I discover new things as I go and will continue to update you. Posting items on their site is fairly easy. Adding people to your network is fairly easy.

My message regarding these sites is that networking is a necessity in marketing your blog, increasing its traffic and attractiveness to advertisers. Additionally, just because one networking site doesn't work for my blogs does not mean it will not work for your blogs.

A sight for adding "Pings" to your blog is called Weblogs.com. I signed up there to start adding "Pings" each time I add changes/articles to my sight, hoping it will drive traffic in my direction. Here is what they say about their sight...

"Weblogs.com, a VeriSign service, is a ping server that automatically notifies subscribers when new content is posted to a website or blog.

Weblogs.com is the original ping service and receives millions of pings every day from blogs that configure their publishing software to notify Weblogs.com the moment content is published.

The VeriSign-operated Weblogs.com ping server will continue to operate as an openly available service. This benefits the entire blogosphere because:
...Blog publishers can immediately notify the community when new posts are available
...Anyone can openly monitor the updated posts, enabling a wide range of intelligent blog monitoring tools and applications. "

That is the "dish" from them. I'll let you know how this experiment goes.

What is the definition of "Ping (Blogging)"? This comes from Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_blog

"Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post (or updates an old one.) That is, the tool sends an XML-RPC signal to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material.
Open ping servers, like VeriSign's Weblogs.com and Yahoo!'s blo.gs, let other web-services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them.

Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material. A few of the blog aggregators that can be pinged directly include: BulkFeeds, FeedBurner, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, Technorati, and Yahoo

In addition to open ping servers, there are an increasing number of proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.

There is a conflict of interest here between the blogger--who wants his new post to get the widest possible publicity as fast as possible--and the web-service owner--who wants his search engine or aggregator to have new blog posts long before anyone else. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers. As the blogosphere has grown, other ping "services" have cropped up, such as Pingoat and BlogFlux Pinger."

Thus far, networking is the best tool for bringing traffic to my blog sites. I additionally tried Ping-o-matic this evening. Since I've only recently started utilizing tools for "Pinging" my blogs, I'll update you on the increase of traffice flow once I have accumulated enough data.

I continue to experiment with the different tools available to build and sustain great blogs and I will continue to give you the feedback from my experiences during these experiments, hoping that they help you have great success.

Happy Blogging!