I've just received an email from James Maduke about a new Visual Search Engine, Search Me, and I felt it was absolutely necessary to tell you about it … it might make you think twice about putting up some ugly template blog with splog content thinking that "if you build it, they will come …"

I'm going to give you the link to watch the video he created at the end of this post so ensure you read it to the end.

You see, the Internet is on the change … again, and this time it isn't about algorithms or keywords, it's about the way people search the Internet for information …

Welcome Visual Search Engines

Now, rather than just bringing up text each time you search for information online, "Search Me" will actually show up text, images and video in their search results.

Now, this may not seem that important, but according to Person Education Inc, 65% of the population are visual learners meaning that they are more comfortable with either being shown or seeing pictures to help them learn and for you the blogger or website author, it means that 65% of the population when given a choice, will "check you out" (or your site :-)), based on looks.

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If you're new to blogging and you're anything like I was when I was a beginner, you have an idea about what a blog is and why have one, but you don't know how to get started.

Your research gives you too many options … use Blogger.com or a WordPress.com to set up a free blog hosting account, use MySpace or one of the other social networking sites to set up your blog or, create your own blog using your own hosting account and domain name.

I've created several blog posts on those options and, I've created a quickstart guide to help you start blogging today and, you can download your free copy here.

In terms of which platform to use, I personally advise against using free hosted solutions such as blogger.com or WordPress.com if you are building a business blog because there is nothing like "owning your blog."  Do something that violates the terms and services of these hosted sites, and they'll delete your blog leaving you with no chance of reinstatement … all your effort and hard work gone.

Are keywords really dead? And, should you be thinking about keywords when building your blogs or writing blog posts?

In short, the answer is "YES, YES and YES!"

There seems to be a myth going around right now amongst some webmasters that keywords are dead and using them on your webpage could hurt your ranking. But, I want to set the record straight …

If you don't use keywords in your title tag, description and on page, you're going to find those "clicks" harder to get.

What is deemed dead with regards to keywords are meta keywords which, we bloggers don't have to concern ourselves with since meta keywords are not a standard aspect of the blog architecture.

Basically, the meta keyword tag for those that may not be familiar with the term is a way to insert text into HTML pages making the text invisible when the page is viewed with a browser. Some search engines read the content of the tag and associates the words contained within the tag with the web page's body copy.

I don't know about you, but I like consistency when I write my blog posts. 

I take the view that my blog is like my "shop front" and I like things to look neat and tidy. 

Now, before WordPress 2.5, I and the other Semiologic Pro users were blessed with a WYSIWYG editor that the developer, Denis de Bernardy customised and, I loved it.  The new text editor that comes with WordPress 2.5 is okay but in my view, it's feels like we've been relegated to a 3rd division WYSIWYG editor …

There's no table icon, no highlight, no font size change and no font style change and what's worse, they have so say streamlined the HTML coding but in my view, it's a headache!  Changes to the HTML code just don't always stick and the text editor seems to have a mind of it's own.

I've worked out how to make some of the changes but on one of my blogs, I put the entire page HTML code in "Notepad" (not Wordpad) and each time I want to make a change, I simply update the Notepad document and copy and paste the code into the text editor.

Oh boy … this is the new dilemma of too many bloggers today. They want to make money with their blog but, there are 101 ways of doing so and everyone has the best suggestion that will get them a flood of traffic to their blog.

There is one problem though …

You can't utilize all 101 ways and if you try to, you're going to crash and burn and your blog won't make you a dime.

Bear with me, I'm going to rant, but I'm also going to give you some sweet tips to get more traffic to your blog! Fair? Okay, read on with your eyes WIDE open!

If you've been on the Internet for any length of time, you'll remember the "blogging and pinging," the "tagging and pinging," "trackbacks," "pingpacks," etc. Whilst these strategies are not obselete, you could literally add 101 new ways to market and promote your blog nowadays and by marketing and promoting, I mean getting noticed so you get lots of traffic to your blog.

But, here's problem number 2 …