According to Google, Google's Blog Search is "Google search technology focused on blogs". It includes search engine results specific to blogs not just in the Blogger.com community, but across the blogosphere at large. You can access it at http://www.blogsearch.google.com/

What the Big Deal Is

A lot of people have probably heard about this extra version of search Google has added and are greeting it with a big yawn, particularly since it's still in Beta. So what is the big deal, anyway?

The big deal is that the top search engine in the world, which was already paying particular attention to blogs in regular search results, seems to make a subtle statement with the introduction of blog-specific searches.

Blogs are important enough to warrant their own special level of search, and not just as an advanced search option, but in their own search engine.

If search engines are paying attention to blogging that closely, you should be too — if you want better search engine results.

Current fans of blogs will be able to search the freshest results so that they can see what is being discussed right now - information that is often as fresh as the news, and draws upon sources that the media-at-large either doesn't have ready access to, or interest in.

So to those with even the most obscure interests or hobbies, a blog search powered by a top search engine gives ready access to fresh information on any subject that someone can blog about.

And if a blog doesn't yet exist on these narrow themes? You can be the one to start the discussion.

Why It Matters to Your Business

Speaking of the media, this is likely to become one of the many tools that a journalist in the know would use in order to research a story, or to find out more information about a company, directly from the people who use its products or services.

Technorati, is at present, arguably a better tool, but it's just not as well known as the Google brand. If you're a power searcher, you already know what Technorati is. But the key thing to understand is that most consumers - even B2B consumers - aren't as deeply involved in the internet.

But even those folks know what Google is.

There's an even more obvious advantage to this specialized search.

Google Blog search has the unprecedented potential to bring the mainstream surfer into blogging, even more than Yahoo's RSS Headlines pioneered the start of making RSS mainstream about a year ago. Why?

While many of your clients will fall instantly in love with RSS, it's more fair to them to present its possibilities in a format that's easier for them to digest. It's not as hard to explain a blog - and if you can't you can simply tell them it's a more frequently updated part of your existing site.

When Google's Blog Search is brought more to the front in coming months, if your site gets into position to be visible when more of the internet population becomes blog-happy, then the traffic potential for your site may prove to be enormous.

The proper use of one RSS feed in one of my content management systems doubled my traffic, with most of the new users coming from Yahoo, this time last year. Another feed increased my daily traffic another 75%, and brought me additional return traffic as well.

At the time the margin between Yahoo and Google was wider than it is today — so the potential increase from being in Google boggles the mind.

How to Get Listed

According to the Blog Search Help Page:

"If your blog publishes a site feed in any format and automatically pings an updating service (such as Weblogs.com), we should be able to find and list it. Also, we will soon be providing a form that you can use to manually add your blog to our index, in case we haven't picked it up automatically. Stay tuned for more information on this."

This means that if you're already blogging - and responsibly pinging, you're probably already listed.

If you haven't been blogging, you're in luck. This special brand of Google search is still in Beta, so if you get moving now, you still have enough time to start getting into position. And since the search currently seems to be focused on freshness and relevance, if you keep up the blogging once you start, and you keep your theme narrow, you could still dominate your niche.

Do It Today

The mantra for blogging before was that, proper blogging is a sure fire way to increase traffic, as well as build stronger ties to your end users or clients, not to mention that it is the simplest of the many implementations of RSS.

Now, with all three major search engines paying more attention to both RSS and Blogging, you can get spidered more frequently, get more of your pages indexed more deeply, and be included in more searches.

You have absolutely no time to waste - if you're not blogging already, you need to get started quickly. Many webmasters are hesitating because they haven't been able to find a blog system that fits well with their site, or find the most popular tools too sophisticated for their needs.

There are literally dozens of free resources to help you decide between the standard systems that were originally built for the personal blogger, and the more robust solutions that are aimed at the medium-sized or corporate company - but that's another article.

Whatever you chose, the important thing is to get started blogging today. You'll be missing out on targeted traffic from the most dominant search engine, from the most sophisticated surfers today, and sooner than you know it, the mainstream web.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul is the co-owner of Leveraged Promotion, which provides many solutions for companies who prefer to out-source their online promotion needs. At http://blog.leveragedpromotion.com you can find out more about how RSS, Blogs and Podcasting can increase your online visibility.

We don't need no stinking badges! Or do we?

Jim Kukral at BlogKits has come out with a new viral idea to help the blogging community gain integrity while still earning an income from blogging. They're offering a BlogHonor banner for free with the following pledge by the blogger:

Thank you for reading my blog. You're here because you've clicked on the "Blog Honor" badge on my blog.

What does Blog Honor mean? It means I have chosen to pledge to you the following:

I will endeavor to continue to bring you the highest quality content that I am capable of

I promise to attempt to disclose or clearly mark any content or advertisements or other monetization attempts that help me keep my blog operating

I pledge to never write "fake" blog content solely for the purpose of trying to generate revenue without complete and clear disclosure. With exception, my blog may exist for business purposes, therefore I use it to talk about products & services that relate to my business, thus assisting me in generating leads & sales for me indirectly
In return, I hope that you will continue to read my blog with the knowledge that I produce my blog out of a passion for the topic I write about, and not because I'm hoping to fool you into making money for myself.

Please note, I have nothing against generating revenue from my blog, in fact, your ongoing support of my sponsors and advertisers (text links, partner ads, etc…) helps me keep my blog operating so that I may endure to create better content for you.

I do appreciate your support. Continued thanks for your readership.

According to BlogKits, the reason for the honor badges is that … right now we are at a critical juncture in the blogging community, where we (bloggers) can either find ways to band together to keep our integrity intact, or continue to let blogging get a bad name.

Blog Honor Badges were conceived by Jim Kukral, publisher of ReveNews.com and founder of the BlogKits Affiliate Marketing Blogging Network. Badge Artwork conception and creation by Whitecapstudios, specialists in blog design.

The big question is how to enforce abuse of the honor badge … If you believe you've found a blog that isn't practicing what they preach, then send it to us with your comments at info at blogkits dot com. We'll investigate it when we can and if we believe the blog is not representing our core values, we'll ask them to remove it. Beyond that, what can we do? We're not the blog police.

Bloggers, if you want to display this banner on your blog, then you need to stop cloaking those affiliate links and hiding them inside your content areas. Even in this post, I have keywords lighting up that link to my other resources. Does it matter that they're affiliate links or not? What I'm seeing other bloggers do is post a visable and static message on their blog "This Blog contains Advertisements" or they're adding this tag as the first line of their post if the post contains monetization links. It seems to be the path taken by top-notch bloggers.

But, what I really want to know is … Jim, when are you going to get BlogKits live?!!

I have forum thread started on the topic of BlogHonor at 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums that you might want to join in.

Let’s start with an important fact. Though you can earn from affiliate marketing even without the benefit of having your own website, it is still a much better option that you get one. A website is the anchor of your work at home business. It will be easier to promote your business and products or affiliate products if you have your own pages in cyber space.

We have previously discussed the basics of creating your own website and optimizing the same for the search engines.

In this article, we’re going to tackle some initial steps you should take in securing an enrollment to an affiliate program and in ensuring that it will be a profitable enterprise. Study these steps carefully.

* Choose the right affiliate program as covered in last weeks article.

* Enroll for the said program. Keep in mind that before you can be a part of this work at home business, you must first opt-in, or verify your application, through your email.

* Once enrolled, you will be given access to a website where you must log in. Do not forget your login details.

* You will see the list of the affiliate merchant’s products inside. You will be given the option to choose a product for which a campaign will be launched. Once a product is chosen, you will be furnished an affiliate link. Do not lose this affiliate link!

With your affiliate link at hand, it’s time to move to the next level!

Your affiliate link is what will tell the affiliate program’s system that a purchaser was referred by you. Your pre-sells that end up becoming successful sales are actually coursed through your affiliate links, thus informing the affiliate program that commissions are due to you.

It is quite evident then that affiliate marketing as a work at home business is all about persuading a potential customer to at least check out the affiliate merchant’s products through your affiliate link. The reason why affiliate marketing is called, well, marketing is because you need some promotional strategies to induce a person to become a purchaser.

We will discuss these marketing strategies in the next article.

The success of an enrollment with an affiliate program as a work at home business depends on the amount of commitment and effort you invest in the same. Being an affiliate, you must remember, is an online job, but a job nonetheless. You cannot just sit down and let this home business earn for you, at least, not initially.

Eventually however, you should be able to automate most of the process by installing some tools for a self-sufficient system of your own. We will cover this thoroughly in subsequent articles.

About the Author:
Mal Keenan can show you step-by step how to set up and run a successful online home business. Learn the 7 essential strategies to internet marketing success. To receive your free 7 day mini-course visit: http://www.malkeenan.com

John Reese is at it again, and this time he's got his eye on the sky. John's opening the doors to Income.com soon, and he's offering you a free membership.

We're hard at work creating the ultimate resource for entrepreneurs and business owners. We're building an exciting community and online 'mastermind' application as well as powerful tools, research, and a wide-range of training 'shows' and programs.

We'll be covering everything from Web 2.0, opportunity analysis, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, pay-per-click advertising, eBay, market research, domain name investing, copywriting, testing & tracking, ecommerce stores, software, information products, blogging, podcasts, and much, much more.

If you're interested in starting your own successful Internet business then you've come to the right place.

If you have an existing business that you'd like to grow online then you've also come to the right place.

John's also looking for a little link love for his new venture, so if you've got a little PR to spare … add him to your blogroll. Then, get yourself over to Income.com and get on the list to be notified when this site opens.

Brad Fallon says, StomperNet has exceeded my wildest expectations. At $800 a month to join the StomperNet, that has got to be some nice return on investment for Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins.

The recent release of the StomperNet program was heavily monitored by the SEO and Affiliate Marketing communities … and apparently by Google as well.

In the early releases of their promotional videos for StomperNet, Brad Fallon used his own business website … myweddingfavors.com … as an example of how successful the StomperNet methods can be if followed. Brad brought a lot of traffic and attention to his business website for sure, but he might have also captured the attention of Google.

Google recently updated their Page Rank algorythms and shook up the internet business world yet again, and guess what?! Brad Fallon's myweddingfavors.com is no longer in the top 10 for its keywords wedding favors … not sure it's even in the top 50!

Now Brad and Andy say they don't use black hat techniques at all, and myweddingfavors.com had a ton of backlinks which Google should like as much as a flea likes dogs. So, if myweddingfavors.com followed all the Google rules … why did it get the G-boot?

Google punishes websites for no apparent reasons and of course, they will never tell you why they do what they do. I noticed they pulled all my PR on my blogs, but I've chalked that up to the price I have to pay for switching servers because I only use white hat techniques with my blogs.

Just like Brad and Andy, I'll never know for sure because Google is just a steamroller in the world of search. You know, they say affiliate marketing will be a bigger player than search in the next few years … the question is, do we take Google along for that ride too?

Once you have your affiliate link, you’re ready to go!

All you have to do, as we’ve discussed earlier, is to pre-sell your affiliate’s products by marketing the same through your affiliate link. An affiliate link leads the would-be buyer to the affiliate merchant’s payment processing page. Once you have managed to do that, your job is done, and the affiliate merchant will take care of the rest. This system makes affiliate marketing a very convenient home based business for anyone!

Pre-selling, however, should be carried out through effective marketing strategies to make this venture really profitable for you. These marketing strategies should be able to ensure a high conversion rate, or the power to convert the people who would be exposed to your affiliate link into successful sales.

Here are some of the more popular types of marketing campaigns being used as promotional tools in this home based business:

* Promoting your affiliate links through viral marketing. Viral marketing is a very powerful strategy that would rapidly expose your business message, or your affiliate links in this case, in just a short period of time. Viral marketing tools usually involve eBooks, special reports and other information products. We will discuss this effective promotional tactic for your home based business in the succeeding lesson.

* Marketing your affiliate links through forums. As we’ve discussed in a previous articles, promotion in online communities is an affordable and efficient way in spreading the word about your products or website, including your affiliate links. You could try to be active in these forums, befriend other members if you have to, and before you know it, you’ll have more traffic for your site and more referrals that could rake in some good commissions for your home based business.

* Article marketing. As we’ve likewise discussed in a prior article, writing articles and submitting them in various venues, with your resource box firmly attached at the end of each piece, is a magnificent way of promotions. People would scour the Internet for information, and if you write something about what they’re looking for, you’ll win their favor and expose your affiliate links to them aswel. This could only redound to the benefit of your home based business.

* Search engine optimization. As we’ve mentioned earlier in these lessons, having your own website would help a lot in marketing your affiliate links. If your website carries your affiliate links, you could always optimize the same for the search engines and drive a humongous amount of traffic to your pages. Every visitor you’ll have would always carry with him the chance of clicking on your affiliate links.

* Create your own mailing list. With a mailing list in place for your home business, you won’t have to lose any visitors. You could always “capture” them, warm them up for an offer later on, or present to them new packages that they might be interested with in the future. Most successful affiliates make a killing with their mailing lists alone! We will discuss this in detail in one of the the forthcoming lessons.

These are but some of the ways by which you could market your affiliate links. If done well, they could assure for you a very successful business that can be easy to sustain as well.

Mal Keenan can show you step-by step how to set up and run a successful online home business. Learn the 7 essential strategies to internet marketing success. To receive your free 7 day mini-course visit: http://www.malkeenan.com

Media Kits are popping up everywhere these days … they're baaack!

Used to be, back in the day, that everyone had a media kit on their business website. Then, for some odd reason they went away. I guess with the added presure by the search engines to provide unique content, we're seeing a reinvention of media kits.

I just came across another one today, and I'll share it with you:

AffiliatePrograms.com gets a new mediakit facelift created by WhiteCap Studios, who also gave their website a re-do earlier in the year. Under the guidance of Dave Cole at AffiliatePrograms.com, WhiteCap created a new media kit section for the AffiliatePrograms' flagship site. AffiliatePrograms.com is a paid resource for affiliate recruitment, communication, and retention.

Media Kits are certainly something to consider adding to your online business to attract additional attention, and it's always a great resource for any sales team.

Many business are starting blogs these days and as a result, many companies are hiring bloggers. If you're interested in getting paid to blog, you might want to check out Bloggers for Hire.

Ros Gardner caught my eye today with her post about Kanoodle changing names and modifying their business strategies. It figures huh, right after Google dances on their affiliates again … we go over to Kanoodle and join, paying the stinking $1 for them to process us … really to get our credit card info, which is suspect … and then, they make these changes without notifing us in a timely manner.

Way to go Kanoodle/Seevast !!! Way to win friends and influence people.

I've had the new Kanoodle ads running now for about a month. Yeah, I was ahead of the Google beating most took. I have to say I'm not all that impressed with Kanoodle … okay, I'm not impressed at all and here's why.

Their ads are not relevant to the information on the web page, not even close.

Half the time their JavaScript code doesn't work right. For example, on some of my three-tall skyscrapper ads … where I should be getting three text ads, it only feeds one. Yeah, that looks real nice on the page. I replaced the code several times with the same results. I'm guessing that Kanoodle (Pulse 360) are trying to get to a place of relevancy, so their system screws up and only feeds one ad … which wouldn't be as bad except that the ad isn't relevant either to the information on the page.

Okay, so those are my personal observations with the newer Kanoodle (Pulse 360) contextual ads service. I'd really like to hear some feedback on what others are expereiencing.

Anyhow, according to Ros…

On August 8th, Kanoodle announced that they will break out their content targeted sponsored links business from Kanoodle into a separate business called Pulse 360. ContextTarget, LocalTarget, BehaviorTarget, and BrightAds will move over to Pulse 360.

Kanoodle will continue to offer search targeted sponsored links through their KeywordTarget product.

Each of their companies will be held under a new parent company, Seevast.

The changes should be in effect by late September, if not sooner. Advertisers will be notified via email when any changes are required.