| The term blog comes from the word iweblog. Blogs | | | | to offer informative content without hard-selling your |
| have been around for approximately 6 years in their | | | | products and services. (But there is one blog, |
| current form - as a digital journal maintained by one | | | | Woot.com, which exists solely to sell a new product |
| or more authors. The blogosphere is the portion of | | | | every day.) |
| the Internet where the websites are blogs. Anyone | | | | If you do publish a "business" blog, offer tips relevant |
| who blogs (writes blog entries) is referred to as a | | | | to your business and its industry. Build trusting |
| blogger. | | | | relationships. For example, if you selling antique |
| Part of the charm of a blog is that the writing voice | | | | furniture to consumers, offer useful do-it-yourself tips |
| is very personal, one-on-one. This is much more | | | | on refinishing, hints on how to save money by |
| palatable to readers, making it easier for them to | | | | bargaining, materials to use for fix-it projects, and so |
| trust the writer. Research shows that the most | | | | on. Show the reader that you are interested in their |
| popular blogs also have a photo of the writer, even if | | | | well-being and finances, not just your bottom-line |
| the blog ultimately exists for promoting the services | | | | sales. |
| or products of a business. This also builds trust, and | | | | On the other hand, if your business caters to |
| would seem out of place on a regular website, unless | | | | wholesale furniture buyers for chain or department |
| it was a regular column - and thus similar to a blog | | | | stores, your blog content will have to be different. |
| anyway. | | | | Such buyers are not interested in the same |
| Another advantage that a blog has over a regular | | | | information as the average antique buyer. Target |
| website is that Search Engines currently love indexing | | | | your blog content appropriately. |
| them, since the content is typically updated very | | | | You can also add advertising to your site, which |
| regularly. In fact, successful bloggers say that you | | | | should be relevant to your blogging topics. Many of |
| must write and post blog entries at least daily, if not | | | | the ad networks provide "contextual" ads by |
| multiple times daily, if you want your blog to rank | | | | scanning your blog (or website) and checking for |
| high in the Search Engines and blog directories for | | | | keywords. The delivered ads will be thus be relevant. |
| relevant keywords. | | | | While some people view ads as an annoyance, there |
| An ongoing experiment of mine shows that my blogs | | | | are others who are searching for information. They |
| get indexed by the Search Engines more frequently | | | | may find your website via a Search Engine, but they |
| than my regular websites. If you have both a | | | | may still be looking for additional information, or even |
| website and a blog, you can then use the relative | | | | product-specific information. The intent of contextual |
| popularity of your blog to advertise your website, | | | | advertising is to provide links to sites with such |
| thus drawing traffic. | | | | information. And you get rewarded for (legitimate) |
| Another use for a blog is to develop Google PR | | | | clicks on ad links. |
| (Page Rank) for your main site. If you write and post | | | | The truth is, there are millions of blogs out there, and |
| quality content to your blog frequently, you will | | | | blogging services report that number is growing |
| eventually draw links from other arwebsites and | | | | rapidly on a daily basis. Carve out a niche relevant to |
| blogs. This in turn helps increase your blog's PR - a | | | | your business. Exercise the leverage that Search |
| relative measure of popularity - which helps your | | | | Engines give to blogs. Post surveys and comment |
| visibility in the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results | | | | boxes so that readers can interact with you. In other |
| Pages). Similarly, if your blog links back to your main | | | | words, build a relationship with readers. It takes time |
| site, the site's PR will eventually increase as well. | | | | and effort to develop regular traffic to your blog, |
| On the issue of using a blog to promote your | | | | and quality content and frequency is the key. |
| business, you have to tread carefully. Your blog has | | | | |