If you're an online poker affiliate and don't have at least one blog set up, you're missing the boat. Blogs are a great way to promote poker and are extremely easy to use as traffic generators. Here is a quick start guide to getting you up and running with your own poker blog.

1. Choose Your Weapon - There are two blogging platforms that I would recommend using, either will work just fine so it is entirely up to you. The first is Blogger. Blogger is a great way to get a blog up and online in just minutes and doesn't require you to spend a dime on a domain name or hosting account. You can customize your blogger template with ads and begin blogging in just minutes. The second is WordPress. If you already have a domain name (or don't mind registering one) and a webhosting account, you can install WordPress for free. If your host gives you access to Fantastico, you can actually have WordPress automatically installed on your domain in just a few mouse clicks. There are pro's and con's to both platforms but both will allow you to get up and running easily.

2. Decide to Blog About - There are many different topics related to poker that you could potentially blog about. Home games, online tournaments, televised tourneys, your last trip to Vegas... the list goes on and on. Pick a topic and go with it.

3. Submit Your RSS Feed - Regardless of which blogging platform you choose, you'll have an RSS feed included. After making your initial blog post, submit your RSS feed to blog and feed directories. This will generate incoming links (which is important for a number of reasons) as well as directory traffic.

4. Write! - Update your blog at least a few times every single day. Make sure that you're including important keyword phrases in your posts that will attract search engine visitors.

That's all there is to it! Blogging is a very easy way to quickly publish new content to the web and if you do this consistently every day, you'll build a good foundation of unique content that will generate traffic for you day in and day out.