There’s tons of blogs out there but only a few of them are being run by bloggers who want to become successful bloggers and make money blogging. If you are one of these diamonds in the rough, you need to ask yourself one question: How can I make my blog addictive?

In web marketing terms, addictive means sticky. You want people to remember your blog and be drawn to visiting it, so much so that reading your posts becomes a daily habit for them. But it doesn’t stop there, either. The most essential component to the success of a blog is the blogger’s ability to inspire others to talk about the blog.

Here are a few things you can work on to make your blog sticky:

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While professional writing can be a very solitary occupation, writing for a professional blog will involve extensive social networking, reliance on honest feedback, and your participation in various discussions – that’s just how successful blogging pans out. While you may be an expert in your chosen field of interest, and you can blog about your ideas and opinions with ease, flying solo can only take you so far.

At Apollo Media, we like to stress the importance of building a ‘mastermind group’, that being a group of individuals, professional or otherwise, you can receive blogging advice from a broad array of perspectives, online and off.

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As much as blogging can be fun and lucrative, it can also be frustrating. Most blogging software has been designed with the average user in mind but every now and again glitches arise. When you’re goal is to make a successful blog and you have no technical background, these minor problems can have you pulling out your hair.

Several of our clients have contacted us in the last few days with the same problem: posts they have published in the backend of the blogging software are not showing up on the front-end. They swear they have done nothing different from any other posts they’ve published on their own and can only assume it’s a technical issue.

The difficulty turned out to be the blogging software’s version of a New Year’s practical joke. The bloggers were editing the existing timestamp to post their posts at an earlier date (for various visual and time-dependent reasons). However, the default year is the year in which we are currently in. So, when they adjusted the month, they believed the software, like most systems today, would intuitively change the year as well.

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On Saturday, December 21^st, eight Apollo team members and three of their spouses, filled with the holiday spirit and gifts for their Secret Santa, met at 439 King St. West.

The air was filled with excitement, laughter and generosity. As the Apollo members trickled in, the gift table filled up. The board room table was loaded with decorated plates of munchies while, like most web marketing agencies in Toronto that we know, the beer and wine flowed freely. Read the rest of this entry »

Century Montessori, a leader within the private education industry and a regular Apollo Media client, has just launched two new websites!

The first web property we’d like to present to you is for Century’s teachers training center. The Newborough Teacher Training Institute is a teachers college that offers the Montessori Method of Education. The website is informative, easy-to-use and interested web surfers can find information on the school, course, admission requirements, curriculum, pricing, testimonials, and an online application form.

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I LOVE MY JOB! My name is Stephanie and I was hired by Apollo as a SEO Copywriter back in July ’07. Since then, Apollo has paid me to research, learn and evolve into my current role at the company as Viral Marketer. But it’s more than the work; it’s the people and their vibes. The whole environment is healthy for me.

If the truth be told, there are more than 1000 reasons to work at Apollo Media. But your time is precious, looking for work and tweaking your resume, so I narrowed it down for you.

Here are the 10 BEST reasons to work for the greatest web marketing agency in Toronto (and maybe even the world!): Read the rest of this entry »

The question of the century is answered right here on Apollo Media’s blog: how does a blog make money?

First, there are a few check points you have to arrive at before you start monetizing.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I have a blog?
2. Do I have a substantial amount of valuable content for readers?
3. Have I promoted my blog?
4. Have I built a readership, i.e. do I have people subscribing to my blog?

If you’ve said yes to all of these questions, then you’re ready for the following 12 ways to monetize your blog: Read the rest of this entry »

So you have a company website that you manage in-house and you want to be found on the Internet by your potential customers. You have most likely heard about search marketing, then, and that there’s a difference between paid search engine results and natural or organic search results.

Ah, but you aren’t clear on the differences and how much each should cost, let alone if either one will be worth your while. And you just don’t have it in the budget to consult a Internet Consultant…yet.

These 10 simple, natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips are designed to help a webmaster (that’s you if you have control over your website) see for yourself that SEO works - and that it’s necessary for your business if you want to grow your business and tap into your online market. Read the rest of this entry »

Apollo Media’s own Darius Bashar will be delivering a panel speech at The Society of Internet Professionals (SIP) conference Wednesday November 28^th at The Metro Toronto Convention Center. In what’s sure to be an engaging event, Darius will be discussing the impact blogging has made on internet marketing, focusing particularly on brand building and the monetization of successful blogs.

Darius’ insights will be useful and illuminating as his newest web project, Websites that Make Money, develops winning strategies that both new and experienced bloggers can use to increase the value of their services online.

Darius will present a comprehensive breakdown of the various steps that individuals can take when aiming to generate substantial revenue from their blog. He also provides important tips on how to hone in on niche markets. Darius plans to share some of his experiences at the November 2007 Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas, as well as The Toronto Bloggers Meetup happening on the home front on the 20^th.

The general theme of the conference will be on blogging and social media, with a detailed review of the new and exciting benefits of wikis and other networking tools in leveraging the engagement of web users.

For more information about the event, as well as a list of other key speakers, click here.

EFP Designs, an industry leader in the Canadian home renovations market, has asked Apollo Media to follow-up their last innovative and interactive web project with another effective appearance in the online world.

Previously, Apollo Media overhauled EFP Design’s home renovations website to feature a pioneering fireplace builder design concept. This creative option allows users to develop a blueprint of their own fireplace setup from a wide variety of templates. The look and accessibility of this idea has brought EFP to expand its offerings to include plaster moldings, bringing the same level of sophisticated user-input and customization to various renovation products.

We look forward to working with EFP Designs again, as their dedication to satisfying customer demand has challenged Apollo Media to continuously come up with unique and more importantly, accessible means of understanding the demands of the customer.

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks to see just how Apollo Media expands on EFP’s committed and progressive approach to marketing their services online.