Would you prefer to have your own domain name on your blog site instead of the domain name the blogging site provided to you? With domain mapping, you can control the domain name of your blog.

Domain mapping ensures that your blog and, consequently your website, are noticed properly by the search engines. Blogs are a great way to keep your website content fresh and interesting, both to online visitors and to search engines.

To boost your search engine results, a blog is a great way to go. But a blog on another website certainly isn’t going to help your cause. Domain mapping lets you transfer your blog over to your own domain name so that it will benefit your website and generate traffic for you instead of a blog hosting site.

Do you have a blog but no website to drive traffic to? It is in your best interests to buy a domain name and move your blog over to a personal site using domain mapping. Buying a domain name ensures that you have complete control over your blog. It prevents your blog hosting site from putting ads on your blog and making money off your writing.

If your blog is important to you, why not purchase a domain name for it? Your ideas are your own property, so they shouldn’t be sitting in someone else’s hands. Having your own domain name for your blog makes you look like a professional and polished expert in your field. Domain names can be purchased inexpensively, and your blog might just surprise you by turning from a hobby into a lucrative moneymaking website once you buy your own domain name.

Choosing a domain name does not have to be difficult. Simply pick a unique title that suits your topic matter or perhaps involves your name. Don’t be dismayed if your first or second choices are already taken. Use patience, creativity and persistence, and you are sure to find the blog domain name that is perfectly suited to your needs. Then, use domain mapping technology to route your blog to your new domain.

Domain mapping is better than simply forwarding your blog to your site. The permalinks and URL of your site will contain your domain name as opposed to your blog host’s, so you will reap all the search engine benefits and traffic available to you thanks to your blog and domain mapping.

After you purchase a domain name to house your blog, find out the specific instructions for domain mapping your blog to your domain. The instructions are available from your individual service provider. Sometimes, you can find the instructions listed elsewhere on the web by other likeminded individuals who have previously taken advantage of the domain mapping feature.

Domain mapping usually involves a nominal annual fee of about $10 to $15 a year, but the increase in your web traffic that you will see thanks to the inclusion of your blog in your domain are well worth the cost. Once your blog is in your hands, your site will benefit from its content.

Some people may not know what tags are and whether they’re important or not. Well here is the long and short of it. Let’s start off with the definition. Tags are a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information, such as a blog entry. This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags can be chosen by the creator or by its viewers, depending on the system of course.

Within a blog tags allow authors to add free-form tags to a post, along with (or instead of) placing the post into categories. For instance, a post may display that has been tagged with “concert and tickets”. Each of those tags is usually a web link leading to an index page listing all of the posts associated with that tag. The blog may have a sidebar listing all the tags in use on that blog, with each tag leading to an index page. To reclassify a post, an author edits its list of tags. All connections between posts are automatically tracked and updated by the blog software; there is no need to relocate the within a complex hierarchy of categories.

So in layman’s terms these tags can be used to find your article when the words you used to describe your article are typed in a search engine or within the blog search tool. Very simple concept but really needed when your looking to be notice. What’s important here is to use descriptive words that shed light on the subject of your blog entry.

For example for this article I chose, blog, tags, how to, meta, spiders, SEO, and keywords. Tip: no matter where you use your tags blog, website, youtube, if your not sure what one to use remember the internet is an open book, just look for an entry close to yours in subject to get some ideas.

When searching the other articles make sure that you read them. If they are for example using the keywords that you think will bring attention to your article then use them. If comments are a part of the post read the comments as well. This may give you an indication of what information is missing from your article and what information is not needed in the articles you are searching through.

So you can see that tags can make your entry very visible or invisible based on your keywords and tags that you use. Chose wisely and you’ll come on top.

A lot of people get into blogging for money because they hear about the fantastic success some people have enjoyed. It’s hard to not envy someone who is earning 5, 6 or even 7 figures a year from their blog.

Trouble is, for many people earning the way someone else does becomes their sole focus. They do their best to copy the successful people they see around them, rather than be themselves.

The biggest problem with imitating the more successful bloggers around you is that it’s easiest to be nothing more than an imitation. You don’t stand out. And if you don’t stand out, you’re not going to get people interested in what you have to say.

It’s one thing to take occasional inspiration from those who are doing better than you are. But if that’s the only thing you do, you’ll have more trouble developing your own voice.

Be aware of what others in your niche are doing, but find ways to stand out. Take a controversial position. Have fun. Worry less about what’s working for others and figure out what works for you.

The thing about blogging is that you can learn quite a bit about what successful bloggers are doing, and still not succeed with your own blog. You’re different people, after all, and the different approaches you take to similar tasks will not get you the same results.

If you really need to compare yourself to someone, take a look at the people who are at your same level of the game. Watch the people who are doing exceptionally well, if you like, but in many ways your most direct competition comes from the people who know about as much as you do.

Even then you don’t want to focus too much on what the other people are doing. You should be focused more on what you can do.

So What Should You Be Doing?

There are some things you absolutely need to get done to succeed as a blogger.

1. Develop your own voice.

You don’t want to sound like everyone else. Be yourself. Have your own style and your own opinions. If you love covering industry news, cover it. If you don’t, leave it alone except when it catches your attention.

2. Write for your blog - a lot!

Many of the most successful blogs are posted to more than once a day. Sure you can get away with less, but you may get less attention.

Don’t overdo! You can annoy readers if you are writing so fast that you forget quality in favor of quantity. Or if you just provide too much information for them to read. There’s a balance to be struck, and it’s up to you to decide what that balance is.

3. Comment on other blogs.

Yes, this takes away from your writing time. But it’s a great way to network with your fellow bloggers and get visitors.

Don’t worry about whether the links to your site are “do follow” or “no follow.” Don’t constantly link to your own posts within the body of your comments. Don’t be self promotional in general.

Be a genuine contributor. Your comments will stick better and bring better attention to your blog.

Am I perfect with these? Heck no! I post on this particular blog far less than I should, but I have others that are more of a focus for me. I have also dropped blogging on sites that I simply do not have time for right now. As my personal life changes I may pick them back up, but for right now they’re on the back burner.

And of course I sometimes wish I could succeed as wildly as certain other bloggers. But I don’t let that get in the way of working on my blogs in my way.

While going through my recent emails, I came across this question”

“Blogging seems to be the way to go these days. Does that mean I can forget about a website in the old way — home page, about page, and so on?”

It’s a great question - and more complex than it might appears. Here’s what I would recommend.

(1) Begin with a blog. If you’re just getting started, stake your claim to Internet real estate with a blog. You will soon discover whether you have a viable target market that is truly interested in what you have to offer.

When you create a blog, you don’t need a webmaster. Writing an attractive, easy-to-read post is as simple as sending an email message. You can have a blog up and running in a day or two. Now you have a place to send prospective customers and clients.

(2) Plan your posts. Writing a blog post seems pretty easy. You might feel that you’re writing to a good friend — except you’re sharing your ideas with the whole world.

This part of blogging is good because many people get writers’ block when they think about writing a whole article. They have no trouble posting a quick note to their blogs.

But if you’re blogging for business, you have to be aware of your message and communication style. With every post, you’re writing promotional copy. So when you write about your dog’s latest trick or your daughter’s struggle in school, you have to relate your post to your business goals. Your writing style, personality and message must be consistent with your brand.

(3) Plan for growth. Your blog can evolve into your permanent website. You just add static pages (i.e., pages that don’t change every day).

If you are an independent professional, you will need a home page that describes what you do. You’ll need an “about” page so prospective clients can get to know you. And you’ll need pages describing your services and approach. These pages can become your strongest marketing partners - if you apply the basics of copywriting to reach your target market.

But you don’t need these pages right away. You can wait till you know you’ve got a hungry market out there.

(4) Make sure you have a way to capture subscribers. You can invite visitors to sign up to get blog posts by email, using Feedburner or Feedblitz. You can also set up a subscription box right on your blog. Most likely you’ll need to tempt visitors by offering what I call an irresistible freebie: an ebook or audio product that promises to deliver an important benefit.

(5) If you’ve already got a website, set up a blog with topics related to your business. Create a menu item on your website to direct visitors to your blog. Create a link from your website to your blog.

Then you can promote your website from your blog and vice versa. Choose a web host that lets you install your blog easily and you’ll be ready to receive visitors.

So you have a website for your business and even though you are getting good amounts of traffic, the site seems somewhat a bit derelict, you decide to visit your competitor’s site and it just feels so very different from yours. Well, I can tell you now, even without looking at the site, it is probably because your competitors are actively blogging and you are not.

Blogging can reap a huge amount of rewards for your business, which we will now take a bit more of an in depth look at. First and very importantly it will help you build a brand and trust with your customers, your readers will be very interested in what you have to say, they will keep coming back again and again.

Another great advantage that you can get from blogging is that search engines will absolutely love you, keeping your blog topped up with fresh content, will not only keep your users coming back, but it will also keep the search spiders busy.

When you a trying to sell a product one of the most important factors is knowledge and trust, when consumers read your blog and they see that you do really know what you are talking about, and you are an expert in your niche, then they will have more trust in purchasing from you. Not only this but another major aspect is that blogging allows you to build relationships with your clients, instead of just blogging about the good, why not let your potential buyers know about the bad as well? This way they will know that they are dealing with honest people.

Another great aspect is the marketing side of things; blogging is probably one of the cheapest and effective forms of marketing that you can obtain. They do not cost a lot to set up and maintain and can provide amazing benefits to your business and information to your current clients.

So if you own a website and do not have a blog, I would seriously consider getting one, as you could potentially triple your online revenue. If you do not have time to blog, then there are plenty of writers that are willing to research specific news on a daily basis and deliver quality content to your reader base. So do not put your blog off any longer, set yourself one up and see your income explode to an unimaginable level.