Tips and Tricks : Blogging Tips : Blog For Free

Blog For Free

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By Trina L.C. Schiller

It's nice to see that RSS has entered the lime light, and that everyone is getting into blogging. As you know, the Trii-Zine Ezine has been solely distributed using RSS for the last 2 years. As you know too, the Trii-Zine is powered by the Rolls Royce of the RSS industry, as is AdsOnQ. But what you may not know is why I choose to spend money to drive this Rolls, when everyone else is clamoring to free blogging systems, (what I refer to as the VWs of the industry) like Blogspot, Blogharbor, etc..

The reason is.... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! It's that simple.

Free blog systems offer very little in the way of control. You have set templates to work with (boring ones at that). Not all blogging systems are true RSS feeds, and they do not provide a complete communications system to their users. (They cannot provide private communications systems to their users, because they don't know how.) Systems that are not true RSS feeds cannot be syndicated either, which is one of the major benefits of using a blog.

Another benefit to driving the Rolls is privatization. The VWs don't allow you to lock the doors. That is to say, that you cannot password protect your free blogs.

Because I have the ability to password protect any RSS channel I create, I have been able to utilize RSS for communicating with the Affiliates of AdsOnQ, and to develop a membership channel for my Melaleuca partners. This allows me to communication with both groups of people without having to send them email, at the same time, affording them [members] a direct line of communication with me, and with each other.

The VWs are missing their gauges too. Currently VW drivers are unable to track their stats. It's like speeding down the highway not knowing how fast you're going, or how far you've gone. Stats are vital! You gotta have 'em!

I can tell you how many subscribers I have, when they subscribed, the link they came in on...

Then there is syndication... Syndication is what makes RSS viral. Syndication is what allows a channel publisher the ability to insert their content into other peoples' web pages (with permission of course). When you have the ability to syndicate, you can offer other webmasters your content for their customers, benefiting both. (The Trii-Zine and AdsOnQ are syndicated on 100's of other web pages on the net.) You can't do that with free systems.

How can free blogging systems operate, without charging for service? Again, the answer is simple... Since they provide users with a sub domain name, they receive the hits and rankings for your blog. So the harder you promote your blog, the higher in rankings the provider goes. They make their money by charging for upgraded services, once you're on the free hook. The thing of it is, if you're serious about using RSS for business purposes, you need to be able to do all of the things in those upgrade packages. Not only that, but you'll need some of the RSS services they cannot provide: privatization, private communication, brandable pages, stats tracking, etc...

So there you have it. I drive the Rolls Royce because it provides my business with all of its needs and gives my subscribers every comfort. Which looks more professional... arriving to your business meeting in a Rolls, or a VW?

Copyright © 2005
The Trii-Zine Ezine
www.ezines1.com

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