Helpful Blog Hosting Information and Services

Bloggers have taken the internet by storm, so it follows that web hosts would provide services directed toward their web sites. The best blog hosting companies should offer all the regular features that any web site would need with an emphasis on the needs of the blogger. What constitutes the best blog hosting sites? The best blog hosting services should make it easy for the blogger to set up a blog site. They should be able to start writing quickly without being knowledgeable about technology.

The best blog hosting sites will help you in this endeavor. If you do have some technological knowledge, you may wish to be able to customize your blog site, and even cheap blog hosting sites should give you these options.
 
You are hoping that your blog site is well read, so you may need add-ons as well as support for a more advanced blog site. Even free blog hosting companies should enable you to make money from your blogging, which is why choosing from the best blog hosting companies is so important.

Before you can begin to find the best blog hosting services, you will have to define your needs. Will you be using the blog site on a professional level of just for personal reasons? Are you willing to pay a few dollars per month for reliable but cheap blog hosting services or are you willing to work with free blog hosting sites? There are several ways to blog on your web site.

You can write of course, but you may want to incorporate video or photographs. If you intend to use these, your blog hosting service needs to be able to support your needs. Are you planning to get your own URL or use one provided by blog hosting sites? Can your blog host help you promote your site or will you need to have ads?

If you want widgets or other applications for your blog then your blog host will need to have them. Price may be a concern for bloggers, so it's important to get the most for your money. Some of the cheap blog hosting companies cost around four dollars a month.

Some free blog hosting services offer many of the same services, but others don't. They are not all created equal, so understanding your blog hosting service needs is crucial so you are not limited by blog hosting companies.
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 Useful Links for Small Businesses

BlogTalkRadio makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to produce high-quality broadcasts and share them online. All you need is a phone and a computer to get started.

Cloud9Living - This company is the U.S. leader in experience gifts, offering over 1,800 unique experiential gifts for men, women & couples in 43 regions.

BenchPrep -  This company creates interactive and social learning courses for the web, iPhone, iPad, and Android. BenchPrep partners with best in class publishers such as McGraw Hill. BenchPrep courses offer average savings of 200-300% off online courses.

Is There Value in Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing continues to be an effective practice for advertisers/merchants, but how much value is really brought by performance-based marketers (affiliates)? 

A recent survey from the Rakuten-Linkshare affiliate network indicates that despite the well publicized challenges, affiliate marketing spend is on the rise and is forecasted to keep pace with other areas of digital spend through 2016.

According to the study the affiliate channel is best for producing "new-to-file" or previously unknown customers and generating incremental customer acquisition. The customers acquired through performance marketing also tend to spend more than the average online shopper and are ultimately profitable for advertisers. Perhaps the most important revelation was that promotions in the affiliate channel have a positive impact on an advertiser’s brand reputation and loyalty.

Forrester, which conducted the study, forecasts U.S. affiliate marketing spending will increase by a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 17 percent between 2011 and 2016, growing to $4.5 billion.

There are several marketing affiliate network to choose from, however, the ones I have the most success with or seem to work well with others are Commission Junction, Empyre Media and Revenue Ads..
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Useful Links for Small Businesses

Western Union Business Solutions is a global leader in foreign exchange and a trusted payments provider to clients operating in international markets.

YouSendIt - Easily send and receive content with the comfort of email without the hassle of inbox limits.Get business done online. Sign documents online with your keyboard, mouse or mobile touchscreen.

ZipRecruiter - enables companies to post to all the major free job boards with a single submission and vet all applicants through simple-to-setup online question and answer.