PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It involves the basis of you paying to get visitors to your blog or product page. It allows for maximum control over where your visitors come from, how many you want in a day, conversion rates, creating multiple campaigns and other various points.

Multiple campaigns is one interesting factor for PPC. You can make many different ads and test what works and what doesn’t. Effectively allowing you to increase the potential of your traffic and even sales.

PPC is ideal for short term traffic or for people pushing products online, such as Internet Marketers. To name a few ad companies we have, Google Adwords, 7search, MSN AdCenter, Adbrite, and dozens more.

Tip – For the best results you’ll want to use multiple sources when dealing with PPC. This is especially true for Marketers.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It involves your blog’s ability to pull in visitors through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This is basically getting visitors for no cost, but it takes a lot of hard work to achieve high numbers.

There many factors to consider when attempting to increase your traffic through SEO. Content, backlinks, keywords, headers, clean code (backend), Sitemaps, meta, keyword saturation, and more. Each one can make or break your search engine ranking which can kill your traffic.

Tip – Content and Backlinks are KING!

So which is the way to go? That’s something that cannot be answered easily. It really depends on your needs, or your abilities, or even your goals. I’m not saying PPC is easy but it’s definitely easy compared to SEO.

PPC is ideal when you are pushing products online, trying to earn extra revenue. It’s important to track your results and ensure you are earning more than you are spending.

SEO is ideal for those who simply want more readers and even ad revenue. It’s a good steady source of traffic and when done properly can boost your visitations to unbelievable numbers… numbers you would be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on with PPC.

So why is it important to go? Not only do they offer help, advice and nohow on content creation, monetization and distribution, but you will get to meet face to face with some today’s top bloggers and learn from them as well.

For more information, times and dates, you can visit BlogWorldExpo Website.

As Nate Whitehill, an attendee of the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, puts it:

“I strongly encourage anyone who wants to be successful in an industry to start attending tradeshows. The people you meet and the things you learn are well worth the cost of hotel, travel expenses, and conference passes.”

See you all in Las Vegas on October 14th and 15th.

BlackBerry offers numerous features like email, instant messenger on multiple platforms, web browsing, event calendars, social networking, GPS and much more. Many entrepreneurs find that they try new devices, only to return to their BlackBerry. While other devices like the iPhone offer similar (though not all) features, BlackBerry phones have time and again proven to be not only quick but extremely stable and reliable.

The organizer definitely deserves notoriety. With an address book, calendar and task list, you can trust that you’ll never be late for a meeting, lose a number or forget that report you needed to type up.

Even at first glance it’s apparent that the iPhone, no matter the model, is primarily designed for fun and entertainment. Their target market seems to be teenagers and people in their early to mid-twenties. Most of the applications created are for this purpose, and even the design has the feel and style you would expect from a phone targeted at a younger generation.

If you want a device that’s nice for web browsing and music, then the iPhone is definitely for you. But if you are a serious entrepreneur, there’s no beating the multiple BlackBerry devices on the market today.

We’ve known Rebecca for a little over 3 years, and seen her site grow from a personal hobby blog to something that is now her full time job, working from home and doing what she loves!

Tell us about yourself. How long have you been blogging?

I set up my first blog sometime around the end of 2003. I was just one of those typical ones where I linked to articles I liked, talked about my favorite music, pets, etc. After a couple of years of that, I got bored with it and took it down. In mid 2006, I got the idea fir what eventually became ElasticPop.com

How long did it take you to get your blog launched?

I would say it really took me about a eighteen months. Because my blog is a Blu-Ray/DVD review site, it took time to make contacts with the studios and PR firms that provide titles. In order to convince them that I could write and publish the reviews, I wrote for some established blogs before soliciting material for my own.

How many hours per day do you spend working online?

During the week, anywhere from 7-11. On the weekends, I try to cut it down to half that, but It doesn’t always work out that way!

What are your favorite revenue sources?

Google AdSense, Commission Junction, Amazon Affiliate Program, iReel

How long did it take you to see real profits from your blog?

That took a good eighteen months, and I’m always looking for ways to refine and increase profits.

What were some of the challenges you had to overcome to see your online visions come to life?

For me, I think the biggest thing was remembering that the site needed to be accessible to people, no matter their level of computer expertise. My first impulse was to build a site with all sorts of bells and whistles, but in reality, a clean speedy site is more likely to be revised.

Any particular methods to generating traffic you could share?

Use Social Networking! Twitter your posts, put them on Facebook and make sure you’ve set up an RSS feed. Outside of that, Make sure your URL is in the signature of every email account you have. Also, you might consider having business cards made up and giving them out, posting them on bulletin boards of business etc. Another great thing to do, is visit forums related to the topic of your blog, participate in discussions, leaving your URL.

What are some online resources you could recommend for people looking to becoming a Professional Blogger?

These are sites I keep bookmarked.

http://www.problogger.net/
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/

Did you ever think you would be successful?

I hoped I would, but I had a fair amount of skepticism going in.

What’s the most common mistake(s) you see other bloggers make?

While it’s important to choose a topic that is popular, it’s equally important to choose something you’re interested in. Too many people choose something they clearly aren’t passionate about, and the site dies before it really gets off the ground.

What’s the best advice you have for would-be bloggers out there?

If you’re going to be a professional blogger, it’s best not to expect overnight success. It’s a lot of hard work, and growth tends to come in increments. However, if you are in it for the long haul, it can be a rewarding experience.

Any future plans you would like to share?

I’m in the midst of getting my forum up and running, so I hope my visitors will come on over and join the discussions!

Thank you Rebecca for taking your time to answer our questions! We wish you best of luck and great success!

As previously mentioned, blogging software not only keeps up-to-date content on your website, but provides an unparalleled source of traffic as well. Search engines like Google thrive on it. Their bots (a software that collects information from the web) continuously check for new posts on your blog, and those updates keep them coming back for more.

What does this mean for you? More thorough indexing on Google, better SEO and higher rankings on search engines, especially for targeted keywords. Having up-to-date content will provide the optimal setting for your website to succeed. Well-written and researched material will not only give the professional feel that your readers have come to expect, but will also portray you as an expert in your field.

In addition, it creates an open environment for your company where past, present and future clients can communicate with you directly by utilizing blog post comments. This will help in accommodating the ever-changing needs of your customers. What more could you ask for? All of this is possible with the power of blogging—up-to-date content, professionalism and putting a human face on your company. The benefits of blogging are vital to increasing traffic to your website and retaining relevance in a new era of communication.

Another popular resource for website designs as well as blog designs is the popular Template Monster where themes come with a download fee and are generally better quality if that’s important to you. My personal favorite would have to be Elegant Themes. For a small membership fee of just $19.95 you’ll have access to over 35 professionally designed themes. When I say professionally design I really mean professionally designed. The themes are simply stunning, well coded, well documented, and even come with a Photoshop file so you can make any design changes your heart desires.

For even more themes there’s always Google or the place called Woo Themes featuring a number of different themes that come with a small fee. What most people do is buy or download a theme, and then hire a blog consulting company to personalize that theme matching their specific needs. This method saves them quite a bit of money comparing to hiring a blog design company to design one from scratch.

It is full of great articles. They’re so easy to read and usually not a single one is boring and full of useless information. Entrepreneur’s website is just as good in terms of content, and they have a Twitter and a Facebook account where you can talk directly to the editors and provide feedback or ask questions. I highly recommend signing up for a subscription, following them on Twitter, and becoming their Fan on Facebook where you can get an additional dose of amazingly useful information.

What’s your favorite magazine, and why?

There was even a movie released last year called Julie and Julia (available on DVD) that’s all about blogs and cooking. Since it’s about blogs I just had to watch it :) You see, I started working with blogs in 2002 (you can read more on our About Us page) and just a couple of years ago you would have to really look hard to find a magazine or a book that mentions blogs. Now it’s all over the place which is both shocking and exciting at the same time. To me anyway. Before people used to say “If you don’t have a website you are not a real business”, and today it’s “If you don’t have a blog you are not a real business”. Amazing how far blogs have come.

It is fun to watch getting Fortune 500 companies become our blog hosting and consulting clients. Companies like Adobe, TIME, Cisco, Washington Post, CapitalOne, Harvard, Expedia, National Geographic, and many others. Over the years we’ve assisted many companies and individuals with various blog requests, and I’m really looking forward to helping many more in 2010, and years to come.

If you don’t have a Blog, Facebook or Twitter — you should really start one. It’s fun, and to some it’s life-changing.

Most articles are really interesting, and full of artful pictures. My favorite stories are the ones that talk about how authors started their blogs and what inspired them, the tools they’re using, and more. I’m into that kind of thing if you haven’t already noticed :) However, there’s one thing that makes me cringe! If you look at the URL’s those bloggers are using you’ll notice that 98% of them are something.blogspot.com or something.typepad.com or something.wordpress.com — Ouch. I can understand why some blog owners want to save money and use free (or really cheap) blog platforms such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com, but why on earth would you not use your own domain name with your blog?!

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. First of all it’s not professional to use something.freeblogplatform.com; it is more difficult to remember; you are promoting someone else by mentioning their free service every single time you tell someone about your blog, and you are telling others that you’re using a free blog platform which tells me you are not as serious about your blog; and most importantly — you’re stuck using that platform. That’s right. If you ever decide to switch to a different service, you’re stuck using that free service because it’s not your domain name and you can’t take it with you should you ever decide to move your blog somewhere else. If the free service you are using decides to close its doors — say Bye to your blog. I can go on and on why it’s one of the biggest mistakes people make.

The solution is simple, cheap, and 100% effective — invest $10 and buy your own domain name! Then map your domain name to your blog and start promoting your name instead of me.someone.com. Now you are fully independent from your free blog provider. You can use any service you wish; you can grow you blog without worrying about the stability of the free service you’re on; you can just pickup and go wherever your heart desires; it makes you look professional, and easy for others to remember the address of your blog.

WordPress was released in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and it is being used by over 200 million websites and blogs wordwide. The company behind WordPress is Automattic. The software is open source – which means it is completely free, and you’re welcome to use it or modify however you want. If something happens to Automattic as a company, and they stop working on WordPress — the large WordPress community will take over, so you don’t have to worry about the longevity of the application and its existence 5 years from now. WordPress is easy to use, it’s lightweight, it is packed with some of the most amazing features you could find in a blog platform. There are over 7,500 free plugins that extend the functionality of WordPress, and over 1,100 themes (designs).

Movable Type was released in 2001 by the company called Six Apart. It is not an open source project like WordPress (although they do have an open source version, it’s not as feature-rich as the paid version). A couple of years ago Movable Type was the most recommended blog platform, and the platform of choice by many businesses and corporations. However, since Movable Type is not free for business-use, I’ve seen companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on licensing alone, and some go with WordPress for that reason alone. In other words licensing can be the deal breaker when choosing between Movable Type and WordPress. There are not as many plugins and themes comparing to WordPress. Software updates don’t come out as often, and many claim that it feels bloated and slow when working with or publishing your blog.

During the past 2 years I’ve seen a huge growth of WordPress (see chart below), many large corporations like TIME, Inc. switched from Movable Type to WordPress — which could either be because of the on-going licensing fees and the economy we are in, or the growing list of WordPress features. We’ve also seen the changes at Movable Type where they let go of some of their key people, then VP Anil Dash leaving the company a couple of months ago, and some other bitter things that I’m not going to discuss in this post.

Earlier in 2009 we converted our company site from Movable Type to WordPress, and helped many of our clients make the switch as well. As you might have guessed, our personal preference and recommendation is WordPress, however I will say it again — it all comes down to your specific needs, budget, and the situation you are in. If you are not sure on the platform you should be using — just shoot us an email and we’ll make a recommendation based on your scenario.