Tags..Tags.....and more Tags

Tags...tags...tags....  You hear a great deal about tags and how they can help your website.  But what are they really, and what do they do.  Well, to put it simply, tags are little page "markers" that are used to reference a point in a story, post, or blog.  Much like "categories", they help in referencing information in the posting.  Categories are used to place an entire post into a specific group, where then all the postings of a particular group can be view at the same time. 

Tags refine this grouping even more by referencing detail related to a line in the post.  The describe the content of individual sections.  Tags kept in the sidebar cumulate in a so called "cloud" formation, much like a list.  This works by fitting a lot of information into a little space, also making searching for specific information much easier.  The will also provide alternate navigation paths to your blog content for individuals and search engines.

I am providing a link to a "blogger" friendly Tag Cloud Widget that can be installed to assist with managing both Categories and Tags. I am going to try this out as well to see how it works on this site.  I am quite interested to see how this interfaces with the rest of my blog. 

Please try and let me know how it works for you as well.  Always remenber to backup your template prior to installing and new gadgets.

Thanks again,

Regards,
Mark

Resources

Greetings,
I have been working with adding some small improvements to my blog.  Although my blog has had an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to a multitude of different viewers, it was brought to my attention that having an e-mail subscription feed was also a necessity. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically (derived from Wikipedia).

I was able to set this up free through Feed Burner Google Feedburner which then sends a confirmation notification once the subscription has been requested.  There are also tracking statistics that can be requested at no cost.  I found this to be a really good deal, and I personally have all my blog subscriptions through e-mail.  I don't necesarily know if there is any benefit over using a "reader" for the same application or not.

Regards,
Mark

Community

It has recently come to my attention that even though there are a number of different sites that list by joining them that your site traffic will increase dramatically, I have done so with little results.  I will admit I am impatient, and want to see results immediately.  After joining some dialogue groups on Blog Catalog,
I was surprised to find hundreds of individuals in the same boat as me, with few, if any visits to their blogs,
and struggling to bring new acquaintances to their sites.  And the recommendation they all received was to list their site, and the "scratch my back if I scratch yours" scenario. 

I did make my way into a couple of discussion groups, and made comments while listing my site URL, and the funny thing is it does work.  I am happy to announce that Freshworks Marketing and Media has it's first official follower.  Thanks to Dyeve!!!

To everyone that visits, keep at it an be diligent.  It will payoff eventually, but you do need to get involved and stay involved.

Regards,
Mark

Blog Traffic

I have been researching through all the various sites to come up with ways to increase my traffic and exposure.  One of the best that I have come across is Darren Rowse, and ProBlogger.  I have attached a link to his site so that you can see his recommendations first hand.  I 'm in the process of getting myself set up in different discussion groups and making sure that I establish links to all the sites I've referenced, as well as prior postings so that I can establish those links. 

I feel that I have a lot to learn in this industry, and am looking to my visitors to provide me with critisism and feedback so that I can make necessary changes and improvements.

Thanks for all the help and support.

Regards,
Mark

Attractive and functional blogs

It is taking some time to get my blog set up the way I want it to look and function.  I used a standard template that came through the Blogspot website, and have modified and change the template multiple times.  I found that following others development process has been helpful.  Mr. Yaro Starak has been very helpful.  He originaly learned through teaching himself HTML, and I suggest this as quite useful, in order to understand the webpage elements and create the specific webpage / blog that each person wants.  I am still looking for useful tutorials for this as well as learning CSS and how it also is utilized.

I have found that I am having some difficulty in placing the advertisement strings for both Adsense and Amazons affiliate program to get the ads to actually run on my site.  Any suggestions that anyone has would be appreciated.

The is also the aspect of getting some traffic generating on my site.  I am subscribing to numerous blogs including John Chow and Yaro Starak who appear to be some of the best out in the blogisphere for running a successful blog.  There is sooooo much material on these subjects, that getting to the core of the information is taking a bit. 

I know that there are thousands of bloggers out there in the same situation that I am in.  Working full-time , and then trying to get something else going in the the few minutes I have available each day.  Again, any comments that are made are more than welcome, and I look forward to any comments and feedback.  If you visit this site, please let me know, so I can have some idea of who is seeing this site.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by!!

Regards - M.