La incorporación de Villarrica a la Red de Ciudades Creativas de la UNESCO, ya sea como "Ciudad del Arte Popular" o como "Ciudad de la Gastronomía" le otorgaría un invaluable reconocimiento de carácter internacional como destino turístico cultural.

Por Manuel Gross Osses

El rápido desarrollo de Villarrica genera los inevitables conflictos de interpretación sobre las modalidades más convenientes de lograr que los beneficios del crecimiento lleguen a todos sus ciudadanos. También, favorablemente, emergen grupos e instituciones que “se ponen la camiseta” de la comuna para producir propuestas de variada índole con la intención de crear, innovar o mejorar las políticas sociales que se financian con fondos públicos.

Pero hay un tema pendiente, la identidad cultural, que todavía no logra ser parte del debate comunal organizado, existiendo sólo esporádicos esfuerzos de algunos particulares por tratar de ejercer esta difusa “identidad”.

¿Cómo focalizar proactivamente el tema cultural?

Una buena respuesta es recurrir a la UNESCO, que en octubre de 2004 lanzó la “Red de Ciudades Creativas” con el propósito, entre otros de “fomentar el aprovechamiento del potencial creativo, social y económico de las colectividades locales, y promover de este modo que se persigan en el terreno los objetivos de la UNESCO respecto a la diversidad cultural”, incentivando la colaboración entre el sector público, el privado y la sociedad civil para favorecer el desarrollo de las actividades creativas.

Las ciudades con una reconocida trayectoria creativa pueden solicitar su adhesión en uno de los siguientes siete campos: Literatura, Cine, Música, Diseño, Arte digital, Arte popular, y Gastronomía. Los campos más factibles de desarrollar en Villarrica son los dos últimos, porque cumpliría con la mayor parte de los requisitos necesarios.

Por ejemplo, algunas condiciones necesarias para convertirse en una “Ciudad del Arte Popular” son:

* Tradición en una forma específica de artesanía o de arte popular.
* Producción contemporánea de artesanía y de arte popular.
* Presencia de artesanos y artistas locales.
* Centros de formación especializados en los oficios afines.
* Esfuerzos particulares de promoción (festivales, exposiciones, salones, ferias, etc.).
* Infraestructuras asociadas, como museos, tiendas de artesanía, ferias de arte local, etc.

En tanto, para convertirse en una “Ciudad de la Gastronomía” se requiere, entre otras condiciones:

* Gastronomía desarrollada y característica de la región.
* Comunidad activa de restaurantes de cocina tradicional.
* Ingredientes locales utilizados en la cocina tradicional.
* Prácticas culinarias tradicionales y métodos de cocina que hayan sobrevivido al avance industrial y tecnológico.
* Organización de festivales gastronómicos y otros medios de reconocimiento.
* Respeto del medio ambiente y apoyo a los productos autóctonos.

Para ser considerada en la Red de Ciudades Creativas no basta una simple solicitud, sino que debe presentarse un completísimo expediente que justifique documentadamente el cumplimiento de cada uno de los requisitos exigidos por la UNESCO. Difícilmente esto pueda ser logrado en ausencia de una organización sólida, como una Corporación, una Asociación Gremial o un Consejo Público-Privado, que consolide eficazmente los esfuerzos de cada uno de sus miembros integrantes.

El esfuerzo de organización bien vale la pena, porque si se lograra la incorporación a la Red de Ciudades Creativas se obtienen beneficios tales como pertenecer a una plataforma mundial de carácter cultural, acceso facilitado a las técnicas y conocimientos específicos, el contacto con el conocimiento y la experiencia de todas las ciudades asociadas y, finalmente, obtener un reconocimiento de carácter internacional como destino turístico cultural.

Versión ampliada del artículo "Villarrica, ¿Ciudad Creativa? publicado el sábado 8 de septiembre en el diario El Correo del Lago, de Villarrica.

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Artículos relacionados: Villarrica como destino de Turismo Cultural

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Atina Chile - Villarrica Cultural

http://usera.imagecave.com/grossman077/Sociedad/pobreza-eeuu.jpg" hspace=8 align=left>El resultado de la destrucción sistemática de capital social es inevitablemente la cesantía, la marginación social y finalmente la indigencia y la delincuencia forzada.

La economía clásica define que los tres principales componentes de un sistema económico son el Capital, los Recursos Humanos y los Recursos Naturales. Históricamente las oligarquías dominantes financiera y políticamente han permitido e incentivado la acumulación de capital financiero mediante la explotación de la fuerza de trabajo y por la expoliación de los recursos naturales y de los ecosistemas en general.

Looking For Traffic In All The Wrong Places - Part 6

Step 4 - Traffic

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Hot Off The Presses!

Press releases. This is how news is shared across the globe. Press releases are updates, information, news, or announcements about your products, services, or areas of interest. A press release should do at least 1 thing: PROMOTE.

Creating a buzz is only achieved through some level of promotion. Press releases are where you should advertise your blog, in an article format. This is your chance to boast and brag! Tell the world about yourself and about your blog. Put emphasis on the positive which surrounds your blog and focus on inflating the positive facts (don't falsify your press release, but provide hype...create your buzz). You should attempt to be creative and witty when advertising. This means you should entice readers to want to see your blog. Such as: "This blog was voted Blog of The Year by the New York Post." Of course, don't say that...it is just an example. Be truthful and be honest.

A press release should be written in third-person (they, him, her, it, etc.). A press release should be written when you have something to offer the reader, an announcement, or when you have an attention-grabbing press release. When submitting press release you should focus on the release date and schedule the distribution date on the same day and time from each press release submission service you use. Your press release should be appealing, promoting, enticing, advertising, and compelling.

When writing a press release the audience which you are writing for is editors, journalist, and publishers of newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other news media. When writing your press release ask yourself "Why would XYZ Newspaper publish my press release?" In the first paragraph you should include the 5 W's (who?, what?, when?, where?, and why?) and the 'H' (how?).

Most editors look for press releases which are interesting and will entice readers. Most editors look for press releases relevant to their column or publication. Most editors look for press releases which are detailed and informative about the product, service, or area of interest, but the trick is not to make the press release to lengthy (unlike articles). A press release should be 300-700 words. This length is enough to provide valuable information and leave out all the extra fluff.

Your mission for this week is to create a press release and submit the press release to at least 10 press release services. Many press release services are free of charge, but some do require a fee and others do NOT require a contribution fee, but if you contribute then your press release will be distributed over a greater network and your press release will have ranking within the service site. It is your choice to contribute or not. Note: Some sites take you to the contribution page after you have successfully submitted and scheduled your press release for distribution. The contribution page makes it seem like you must purchase the service but in reality your press release is already submitted and waiting. At this point you will just need to back out and go to the member area of the site to see your press release and edit changes, if needed. Otherwise, you will need to contribute to move forward. Let me also, note that contributing is sometimes the best way to promote your press release. Contributions is the same as a bidding war, the highest bid or contribution gets the highest position and exposure.

Think of something creative and catchy to draw a buzz to your blog.

Can you think of anything?

If not then think like this: If you a reader and you are searching an online newspaper or online magazine which revolves around your niche and you seen a headline, what headline will grab your attention and make you click to read more?

What will keep you reading. The first few sentences of your press release should be so compelling that it keeps the attention of the reader. You should have good writing practice by now if you have following the instructions and to-do list of this newsletter.

I can try to help. I can think of one headline for you: New Blog About YOUR NICHE on the Journal Home Domain

New - usually is an indication of fresh content and sometimes peaks the interest of readers. Would you click on an headline that reads: New Blog About YOUR NICHE on the Journal Home Domain or an headline that reads: Blog About YOUR NICHE on the Journal Home Domain

See the difference one word can make?

We can even take it one step further and have the headline read: Exciting New Blog About YOUR NICHE on the Journal Home Domain

Make good use of adjectives when creating headlines and enticing readers. But don't over do it with adjectives or with hype. Provide your readers with substantial information and content. Press releases is where you should tap into your creative writing style. Ask yourself, what will hold your interest?

Okay, so I will let you think about your press release and what to write about. Complete your press release this week and submit it to at least 10 press releasae submission services. Below is a list of press release services. There are niche-related services, it will be your job to become familiar with these. The services listed below are general:

Go here to go through a step-by-step to create your press release: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/Instant-Press-Release.htm

You should read the terms, conditions, guidelines, and rules of each publication. Do not become discouraged if your press release is rejected, if the publication tells you why it was rejected and the problem can be fixed by a simple change then go ahead and make the change. Otherwise, just move on and forget, but read the site policies before submitting a submission to save you from user-fault rejections.

• PRWeb

• PressBase

• PressBox (UK)

• New York Express Press Release

• Free-News-Release

• EmailWire (pay service)

• Send2Press (pay service)

• U.S. Newswire

• PressMethod

• Press World

• Newsreleaser

• MediaSyndicate

• PR9

• MBPublishing

• PRWeb Direct (pay service)

• PR.com

• 24-7 Press Releases

• PRLeap

• PRFree

• Express Press Release

• Xpress Press (pay service)

• Internet News Bureau (pay service)

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Next Week Newsletter

Track Your Blog - Part 1

Journal Home

Looking For Traffic In All The Wrong Places - Part 5

Step 4 - Traffic

There are two other mentionable resources when it relates to advertising your blog. The first is writing and submitting articles to article submission and syndication services. The other is writing and submitting press releases to press release submission and syndication services.

You probably asking, what's the difference between the two?

The difference is articles are written to instruct, inform, amuse, or entertain readers about your niche, topic, or area of interest. A press release is written to announce, update, or inform readers about your product, service, or area of interest. Articles are written in first-person and sometimes second-person when appropriate, without advertising your related product, service, or area of interest. Press releases are written in third-person with the intent to advertise your product, service, or area of interest.

They both are important because this is the best way to create backlinks and buzz for your blog. Articles create backlinks while press releases create a buzz. Backlinks are links which point back to your blog from an external site, either with anchor text or a regular URL address. The more backlinks your site gains the easier and faster search engines will find your blog and index it. Also, backlinks will help your ranking within search engines. There is a negative effect to gaining backlinks...and it's called the Google SandBox Theory. It is theorized that Google puts a holding period on new sites, especially when they grow backlinks too fast. This hold is so that Google will know that the new site isn't using unethical practices to gain traffic. Growing backlinks rapidly is a red flag of unethical practices. You shouldn't have to worry about the Google Sandbox, because Journal Home domain is currently not affected by the Sandbox, but this is a good note for future reference.

Rest assure using article and press release services are completely ethical, as well as anything which I instruct you to perform, but there are ways to gain traffic extremely fast using unethical SEO practices or some call it "Blackhat Search Engine Optimization". Blackhat Search Engine Optimization is not illegal, but many consider it unethical. Blackhat are SEO practices which only benefit the search engine (not the visitor) or SEO practices which are designed to defeat the search engine algorithm. The practices I instruct you to perform are considered "Whitehat Search Engine Optimization". Whitehat Search Engine Optimization is considered ethical. Whitehat are SEO practices which benefit the visitor with a focus on the search engines or SEO practices which are designed to work with the search engine algorithm, for the benefit of the visitor finding your site/blog. That's why relevancy is important, because a site/blog that links from anywhere including non-relevant sites then it's sometimes considered Blackhat others might consider it Greyhat, which means it's neutral, neither good or bad.

Okay, now let's first discuss writing and submitting articles. An article is a lengthy writing which is informative, instructional, entertaining, general, amusing, etc. When writing an article you should NOT include any direct advertising or mention of your blog, unless it directly relates. When writing and submitting articles you are writing for webmasters and newsletter (ezine) publishers, who wish to publish and share your article with their website visitors or newsletter members. Your article will usually go through scrutiny by the submission and syndication service before being published on their website for pick up. Then your article will also go through scrutiny by the webmasters and newsletter editors before picking up your article to publish on their site or newsletter. Most publishers do not like to publish articles which are meant for self-promotion, so avoid self-promoting and advertising. Most publishers do not like to publish articles which are not lengthy, so your articles should be at least 400-1200 words (not characters) in length. Though, some services have a minimum quota, you should look at the rules and terms of each article submission and syndication service. Most publishers do not like to publishers do not like to publish articles with a great amount of grammatical errors and misspellings, therefore try your best to clean up your article.

I recommend writing and submitting an article at least once a week, though I understand everyone cannot have this discipline, so if once a week is too much, then do so at least once a month. You should write your articles without being date-conscious, this means try to avoid specifying a date or anything which reveals a time of event. By not having any date restraint your article can be published at any time, such as a year or two from now. Your article should be closely related to your niche. It does not need to be exactly about your niche, but it should be targeted, such as if your blog is about a famous musician then your article should be either about the famous musician, music, entertainment, instruments, etc. (a category which relates). The grammar, spelling, and punctuation of your articles should be correct. Your article should also be keyword-rich. It is a must your articles are original and written by YOU in your own words. You should also create a blog category (within your Journal Home member area) titled "Articles" and all articles should be saved within this category. By categorizing your articles you can use this as your managed portfolio for future prospects. If you write 1 full article each week within 1 year you will have 52 articles, which looks very impressive to employers looking to hire freelance writers, content writers, copywriters, journalist, editors, etc.

With that said, most employers looking for writers do not look for bloggers or accept blog articles as professional content. Though, you should start small with small publishers/employers. Your blog articles will be most appealing and acceptable by small publishers/employers, such as weekly or monthly editorials. Also, you can gain good experience with query letters, rejections, and freelance writer rights when dealing with small publishers/employers when looking for payment for your articles.

Do NOT create any articles on your blog or on the web which you wish to keep private or wish to sell for profit. In some cases, publishers will buy your content even if it is already in distribution, but once sold they will commonly have you sign an agreement not to freely distribute or sell your article any longer or they may purchase the content just for their use without any agreement. In some cases your article will lose value if it is already in distribution or already sold. In this case you will need to price your article accordingly. If you plan to sell your articles for profit, then I suggest you create original content at the time you receive a writing project and retain the rights to your article by only agreeing to First North American rights. Having many articles without any prospects is like having a handful of diamonds without any diamond buyers. It's only valuable when you have a buyer.

I recommend do NOT include any copyright tag to your article. Any content published is automatically covered by the international copyright law. By adding the copyright tag, it shows your novice in the area of writing and employers will recognize this as a weakness.

When creating your article it is also important to think wisely about your article title or headline. Many times the title or headline can determine the success of the article. This will be the first thing someone will see before clicking to see your full article. If the title or headline is catchy, enticing, or interesting then it is highly likely a person will click on your article to read more. Make the title unique, do a search on Google or Yahoo with quotes surrounding your title or headline to make sure it is not already being used. By having a unique title or headline the proper search engine credit will be given to your article. This also makes it easier for you to track your articles.

The important piece of the article is the "About the Author" excerpt, which trails the article. The "About the Author" excerpt is where you should include your blog link either by anchor text or regular URL. I suggest using a "regular URL" such as: http://www.journalhome.com/yourusername because not all article submission services will enable the use of HTML tags. By having the "About the Author" excerpt you create backlinks to your blog as well you can give a brief description of yourself and talents. Click here to see an example article with the "About the Author" excerpt.

Here is a list of general article submission and syndication services. You should get familiar with a handful and submit your full completed articles to 10 or more article submission and syndication services within 1 week for the best exposure. There are also niche based article submission and syndication services, it will be your job to find those.

• ContentMasterWorld

• GoArticles

• ArticleCity

• EzineArticles

• ArticleFactory

• Constant-Content

• Associated Content

• Idea Marketers

• Content-Articles

• Amazines

• ArticleWarehouse

• AuthorConnection

• ArticleFinders

• WebsiteFuel

• Marketing Pitbull

• Organic Rankings

• BPubs.com

• ArticleHub

• SimplySearchIt

• UncoverTheNet

• SubmitYourArticle (pay service)

• PhatomWriters (pay service)

• Article Nexus

• Knowledge-Finder

• LinkGrinder

• Buzzle

• ArticleTime

Believe it or not once you submit your articles you are now a editor. You are the author of the article and if any drastic changes to the original article is needed it is the job of the editor to make those changes or give the permission for the changes to be made.

This week I would like to you to first choose at least 10 submission and syndication services, which you would like to use to submit your article, either from above or a list of your own. Once you decide which services you will use, become familiar with their Terms, Conditions, and Guidelines. Once familiar with the submission rules begin writing your article accordingly. Try to be as interesting as you can be. If you need to look at other articles on the submission and syndication services websites then do so, to get a better idea of how to write a compelling article or an idea of writing style. When writing your article be original, in your words, and in your voice. Be heard.

Submit your article to the 10 submission and syndication services when the article is fully complete and ready for distribution. Complete this within 7 days and then we will discuss "Press Releases".

Remember to continue adhering to the Daily To-Do List, below.

See you next week!

Daily To-Do List

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Next Week Newsletter

Looking For Traffic In All The Wrong Places - Part 6

Journal Home

Looking For Traffic In All The Wrong Places - Part 2

Step 4 - Traffic

Let's discuss 'Link Structure'. I would like to discuss four types of link structuring. That's anchor text links, internal links, external links, and backlinks.

Before we begin let me give you some advice. You should use your blog URL (link) for any communication media, such as: email signature, forum signature, message board signature, other blogs, trackbacks, sign-up forms, registration forms, etc. The more exposure, the better. You should always treat your blog like a business and try to represent your blog in the best light possible. When you create links be well aware which sites you associate your link with. You should be confident and proud about your blog and try to share it with everyone friends, family, co-workers, classmates, associates, and anyone you come into contact with.

As you may have already noticed I put a lot of emphasis on keywords. That's because keywords are extremely important when it pertains to gaining traffic within search engines. It's possible to only focus on keywords and build a successful website, without spending any money on advertising. The only problem with that method is that it will usually take years or more to see a good amount of traffic, but by focusing on keywords and free advertising methods you can gain a daily significant amount of traffic within months. Link structuring should be the next focus aside from keywords. Better yet, focusing on keywords and link structuring at the same time is ideal, this is an evil combination and they actually work hand-in-hand.

Okay, let's go over the word "Link Structure".

Link structure pertains to the organization of links within your blog. Anchor text is the title of the link, external links are the links pointing to different websites outside of your blog, internal links are links pointing to different areas within your blog, and backlinks are links pointing from other websites back to your blog.

Link structuring helps search engines index and crawl your blog better. It is also important to link to relevant information about your niche and to use anchor text when creating links which will point to your blog from external sources.

Please note:

Journal Home content management system is already structured in a way to automatically structure your hyperlinks. 'Recent Post' provide anchor text with internal links. 'My Links' under the 'Edit My Profile' section creates external links with anchor text. Journal Home cannot create backlinks, therefore, backlinks will need to be created on the fly, by submitting your blog to different search engines, directories, and putting links on other websites. Even though Journal Home content management system handles most of your link structuring it is still good practice to create your own links when appropriate.

Anchor Text (definition from answers.com)

Anchor text is the visible text in a hyperlink. Anchor text gets a lot of weight in search engine algorithms because the linked text is usually relevant to the landing page. The objective of search engines is to provide highly relevant search results; this is where anchor text helps as the tendency is, more often than not, to hyperlink words relevant to the landing page.

An example of Anchor Text is: Free Blog Host

Free Blog Host is highlighted because it contains a hyperlink to: http://www.journalhome.com. When someone does a search for 'Free Blog Host', the search engines will display Journal Home in its results and recognize the keyword phrase 'Free Blog Host' then will credit journalhome.com an authority of the keyword phrase, pushing journalhome.com up in the search engine rankings. Of course, it is not that simple but it is the gist of what happens.

You should choose 5 keywords or keyword phrases from your top 25 Keyword List which are most relevant to your niche. Always use 1 out of the 5 keywords or keyword phrases as your anchor text, whenever you create backlinks. Be sure to switch between the keywords and keyword phrases, when creating your links, so you can gain greater search engine results. If you submit through a form then make sure you use your keywords or keyword phrases in the "Title" field, the "Title" field usually creates your anchor text. Anchor text is always important for search engine marketing.

Internal Links

Internal links are the links which point to different areas of your blog. It is good practice to add anchor text links to different entries within your blog when it relates or when you are discussing a previous entry. Simply link to a previous blog entry when adding a new entry. You will link the same way you would if you were linking to another website.

Internal links share the ranking value of your blog pages. You do not want one page of your blog to outshine the other pages in search engine results. If you have equal or close to equal value then the search engines will deliver better results and more results when one of your keywords is searched. This also helps the search engines crawl and index your pages faster and more efficiently, because it can now find entries which were buried or no longer linked to.

You should not worry too much about internal linking because Journal Home blogs automatically create link structuring through the use of Recent Posts and with Journal Home blogs most blog pages are at most 3 levels deep, which is the common search engine depth when crawling. Journal Home itself is spider by all three major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and MSN) every single day as well as other smaller search engines. Therefore, this step needs to be mostly addressed when you have your own domain, because Journal Home has taken this stress away from you.

Though, I do want you to get some practice with internal linking, by pointing to a previous entry when it relates. Also, it is important to use anchor text when using internal links, so you can use different keywords or keyword phrases to link to previous journal entries. This gives you a better balance for utilizing your keywords and keyword phrases.

External Links

External links are the links which point to another web page outside of your blog. The important thing about external links is that the anchor text should be relevant to your blog/niche or at least the landing of the link page should be relevant. Example: If your blog is about Digital Photography then linking to a site which is about digital camera reviews would be relevant.

I know there are times you may want to link to a site which is not relevant to your niche, because it is one of your favorite sites, but it may do more harm than good, so let's not link to any non-relevant site. Instead, just save non-relevant sites to your browser favorites and bookmark it for later retrieval for your personal use. Let's try to keep all external links relevant.

You should have no more than 25 external links per blog page. The easiest way to create external links using Journal Home is to go under 'Edit My Profile' and add links at the 'My Links' section. You must have the link variable in place on your template. For information about the link variable please see the Support & FAQ section for Template Variables.

Backlinks

Backlinks are links which point back to your blog from external websites. Backlinks are important when creating links. You should try to get as many one-way backlinks as possible. One-way backlinks are links which do not require you to link back to their site. By linking back to a site which you are linking to, it devalues the value of both links. If the link only link to you then it increases the value of your link. You should also pay close attention to Google PageRank (discussed in later lessons) to know how Google values the site. The higher the PageRank the better value it provides your link. You will hear more about backlinks in upcoming lessons.

Backlinks are created by other webmaster who have a interest in linking to your site, but the most rewarding backlinks are usually created by YOU! You must be on your job and create backlinks every chance you get. I recommend creating at least 2 backlinks everyday and again try to find one-way backlinks. Finding free one-way backlinks is the most difficult, because usually you won't get something for nothing, but they are out there! We will discuss submitting your links to search engines, directories, and other free advertising platforms next week.

By having the proper link structure you are prepared for the traffic when it comes. The search engines will crawl and index your blog without any problems, making your blog stand out among the rest.

The homework for this week will be to link to one of your blog entries from another blog entry (make it relevant). Use the title of the blog entry as the anchor text for the link or use a keyword or keyword phrase from your Keyword List if it relates to your blog entry. Also, search and find two external websites which relate to your blog/niche and link to them on the homepage of your blog, use relative anchor text for the external links. You may need to edit your blog template to include the external links, otherwise you will need to link externally within your journal entry. Last, find two sites which you can create one-way backlinks, use 1 of your keyword/keyword phrases as the anchor text. The one-way backlinks should be placed on external websites/blogs (preferably with a Google PR of 3 or higher). We will continue next week and discuss free advertising.

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Next Week Newsletter

Looking for Traffic in All the Wrong Places - Part 3

Journal Home

Looking For Traffic In All The Wrong Places - Part 1

We need to first discuss Meta Tags. Meta tags are a good way to setup your environment for traffic and advertising purposes. Meta Tags tell search engines how to display your listing within the search results. The meta tags we will discuss is "Title", "Description", and "Keywords". Please note: YOU DO NOT NEED TO SET UP A TITLE META TAG FOR YOUR JOURNAL HOME BLOG! THE TITLE META TAG IS THE SAME AS YOUR WEBLOG AND ENTRY TITLE!

When a web surfer does a search, the search engine will gather information found within the Meta tags and display its results. Such as the Title (link) of a search results is usually displayed because the Meta Tag has informed the search engine that this is the site title. If no Title Meta Tag exist then the search engine will determine the title by the content of the page. Meta tags should be placed in between the HEAD tags within your blog template HTML code, usually found at the very top of the HTML code. You can see the attached text file for examples of these meta tags.

Title Meta Tag:

PLEASE NOTE: You do not need to add the title meta tag to your blog. The weblog and entry title is the same as the title meta tag.

The title meta tag will be the title within the search results which links to your blog. In Journal Home, the Title meta tag is the same as your weblog and entry title. You can change your weblog title in the Journal Home member section, Edit My Profile. Your entry title is created when you create a new entry. You will know the title of the page by paying attention to the content at the top left of your web browser. The title should be short, catchy, and precise. Remember the title will usually be the first thing a person will see, before clicking on your link. The title meta tag should be 7 words or less. It should directly inform the web surfer what your blog is about. If your blog is within the search results then it should (hopefully) be what the web surfer is looking for, but the web surfer must see this information within the title to actually click the link. The title should be keyword-rich because relevancy is important. When search engines grab websites which match the searched keyword they pull results which are relevant. The title is most of the time polled for relevancy. I suggest changing your title once a year, along with your entire keyword strategy. In some cases you will switch up more frequent than that or less frequent, but once a year is because it usually takes at least a year for your keyword strategy and meta tag strategy to gain popularity within all search engines. By switching things around you will be able to tackle other keyword strategies and meta tags strategies which produce different results for other searched keywords. This way you are gaining search engine results from your previous keyword and meta tag strategies as well as your most recent. This creates a steady flow of traffic from different spectrums of the web.

Description Meta Tag:

The description meta tag is the description which describes and details what your blog is about. This description will be shown within the search results usually succeeding the title of the search results. Description tags should be enticing but honest and truthful. The description meta tag should be 30 words or less. When creating your description tag you should ask yourself: Why would someone click on this link? Ask yourself: If I was a web surfer looking for information about my niche, what (description) will make me click on this link? The description tag is where you should give more in-depth information and description about your blog/site/niche. You should include a description meta tag within the HTML code of your blog template, place the meta tag between the HEAD tags. See the attached text file for examples of meta tags.

Keyword Meta Tag:

The keyword meta tag is not visible within the search results, but it may be one of the most prominent tags. The keyword meta tag allows you to validate keywords which relate to your blog. The search engine will see the keyword tag and display results based on its relevancy. It is not necessary to repeat keywords which are already covered within your title and description, because the keyword tag is for the purpose of including keywords which are not used within your title or description tags, but I do suggest repeating keywords which you have already used and are most relevant, because it helps keyword density. I also suggest to use a maximum of 15 keywords, you can use more (an unlimited amount) but it wouldn't do much good to use too many, in fact it can hurt you more than anything. Your blog/site can become penalized by search engines if you use too many keywords or try to manipulate the search results by using non-relevant keywords or overly repetitive. One other thing I suggest, which is usually disputed by most webmasters, is to NOT use commas for separating keywords. I suggest this because by NOT using commas you are able to have your keywords consolidated. Commas separate your keywords and you will need to create exact matches and use repetitive keywords for each keyword phrase....example: "free blog, blog free, free blogs host, host free blogs" By not using commas your tag will be similar to this: "free blog blogs host"...any of the searched phrases (free blog, blog free, free blogs host, host free blogs) are covered by the NO COMMA scheme and will be a part of the results, without wasting keywords with repetition. In the past, when search engines were young to the web, commas were a must, because search engines couldn't properly decipher or consolidate keywords not separated by commas, but in today's market search engines have progressed (since search engine algorithm is top secret and frequently changes, I do not have any fact, except for my search engine results do pretty well), but I couldn't imagine why a search engine would be stagnated because of commas in the keyword tag, it makes no sense to me in this competitive market. Search engines are intelligent enough to correct your spelling, display relevant results, read meta tags, and dig through billions of web pages, but can't consolidate keywords. It doesn't make sense to me, so I suggest NOT using commas for keyword meta tags. You should include a keyword meta tag within the HTML code of your blog template, place the meta tag between the HEAD tags. See the attached text file for examples of meta tags.

For normal web pages (aside from Journal Home blog pages) meta tags should be embedded in the code of every page with slightly different title, description, and keyword tags, because you do not want your web pages to cancel each other out by having duplicate tags. For your Journal Home blog you do not need to worry about different pages because you only have 1 location to create your meta tags.

You should become familiar with meta tags and create a description and keyword meta tag for your blog. Go ahead log into your Journal Home account and click on "Edit Template" in the member section and place your newly created meta tag in the proper section (between the HEAD tags). Note: Your blog may not already have meta tags, therefore you will not see the META indication. See the attached text file for examples of META tags.

We'll continue next week. Take care, Manuel!

Daily To-Do List

1½ hours per day

Next Week Newsletter

Looking for Traffic in All the Wrong Places - Part 2

Journal Home

Update Yours - Part 2

Step 3 - Update Daily (nothing less)

Ok.  You should have blogging with keywords down pact.  Now we must critique your natural talent...WRITING!  We must make you into the author that you are! 

A persons' personal experiences are what makes up the character a person is.  People in general have different characters and different styles, but you can always find someone who thinks like you, who share your interest, who understand your thoughts, and who hear your voice!  Especially online!  You should capture your audience!  Capture your audience attention!  Share your thoughts, your opinions, your views, your ideas, your interest, your experiences, and your knowledge.  Be yourself.  Stay original.  Your blog is your stage to talk to your PEOPLE!  They are your trusted READERS!  They hear your voice!

Forget what is happening on the world wide web!  Focus on your corner of the web!  Your blog!

If you do not have an audience (not even 1 person)...don't worry!  Continue to blog everyday with your words as if you have a million listeners.  They will soon come.  Continue to mildly focus on keywords and grabbing the latest information about your niche, but most importantly - BE YOURSELF!

Being yourself is key to being successful at blogging.  You should be in tune with your audience and your audience interest.  Everyone does not need to have interest in your blog, but those who are interested in your niche should find your blog as an useful resource with original content.

Your blog content does not need to be lengthy, but each entry should have a fair amount of content.  If you have something to talk about...then talk!  Talk to your audience, they are reading your blog, because they want to hear what you have to say.

If you have been blogging everyday since the last time we talked, then you should have about 7-21 blog entries right now.  Let's break up our pages.  Under 'General Settings' of your Journal Home member area change the number of "Entries Per Page"...let's change it to "6" or "7".  Save your changes.  What does this do?  It spread your pages and keywords!  Having more pages makes it easier and less cluttered for your readers.  As well it helps search engines follow, index, and crawl your blog.  A blog can be considered a mini-websiste, each entry creates a web page...there is usually a permanent link associated with each entry.  This permanent link is another web page.  So if you have 200 blog entries, then you also have 200 web pages (with keywords, links, and relevant information on each page).  Spreading the pages will give you many more pages for the search engines and better keyword density.  Everybody is happy!  The readers, search engines, and YOU!

Don't get scared at the number "200"!  Two hundred blog entries is very possible.  If you continue to write 1-3 blog entries everyday for a few months then you will have well over 200 blog entries, in no time. 

Continue to update daily!  Do not stop this.  If you miss one day every so often (once every month) then that is acceptable (to some people).  But, do NOT miss days at a time!  Weeks at a time!  It is important that you build a knack for blogging and providing your readers with daily updates and information, surrounding your niche/focus!  You should have a steady schedule which includes tending to your blog.

Next week we will discuss Step 4 (Traffic).  We will first discuss link structuring, which is important to receiving and gaining traffic.  Ok.  Go ahead.  Update your blog on a daily basis and tend to your blog.

Daily To-Do List

1 hour per day

Next Week Newsletter

Looking for Traffic in All the Wrong Places - Part 1

Journal Home

Update Yours - Part 1

Step 3 - Update Daily (nothing less)

This is probably the most important step of all.  If you do not plan to update your blog daily then you should not read any further, because your blog will most likely be unsuccessful.  It is imperative to update your blog daily to have success at blogging.  Updating your blog daily supplies fresh content for your visitors and for the search engines.  Think of it like this:  If your favorite daily newspaper decided to report news whenever they felt like it then what would you do? 

You'll find another favorite daily newspaper!

In a sense you are a reporter.  You supply news, information, and content.  You feed the brains of your readers. 

All you need is 1-2 hours a day of dedication to your blog.  Treat this seriously, one day this blog may be your financial lifeblood.  That is the hopes!

Okay let's begin!

Grab your 25 Keyword List!

Go to Journal Home and register for a FREE account.  When registering try to use the name of your niche as your blog username, if it suits you.  If the username is taken then use one of the 25 keywords from your list.  Otherwise, just use any account name which you are comfortable with.  If you already have a blog at Journal Home, leave it alone.  Register for another FREE account.  It's okay.  Leave your previous blog alone...you can continue to update that one also, if you like.  For these lessons we are going to start fresh, so you can see the full effect.  Go ahead register for a new FREE account.

If you honestly cannot part with your current Journal Home blog, and it is a must that you use it, then that is fine.  Your current blog may already be keyword-rich and have great value if maintained properly.  So, if you are using your current Journal Home blog then from this point forward you should follow the lessons I provide to maintain your blog.

Make the Weblog Title a name which identifies the niche.  Try to use a phrase (3-5 words), it can be simple such as:  "The Keyword Blog", but try to use a keyword or keyword phrase from your 25 keyword list.  If possible make the phrase entertaining and alluring, something catchy.  If you can't get 3-5 keywords in your 'Weblog Title' then fi