Why Blog?

by: Jill Hart

It seems everyone these days is talking about blogging. Everywhere I go, I find articles and forums devoted to this craze. I also have heard from many moms who are trying to figure out what a blog is and how they can use one to their benefit.

The term “blog” is short for “weblog”, which just means an online journal or “log”. You can jot down personal thoughts and notes, post articles you’ve written or keep track of interesting websites you find. The sky is the limit, it seems, when it comes to blogging. A blog is something entirely of your own creation and you can use it to share your thoughts with the world, well….with anyone you can get to read it anyway.

One of the main debates going on about blogs is whether blogging can be done to improve Search Engine rankings for businesses or to create a buzz about business websites. Both of these can be true if the blog is used correctly. Many resources show that once a blog is created, many times it is listed in Search Engines within 48 hours. This was true of the blog I created for Christian Work at Home Moms.

These are many ways to create a blog. The easiest by far is to use one of the free tools available online, such as Google’s Blogger. You can create your blog for free using their online tools and templates(nothing to download). After you have created the blog, you can then publish your blog through them and “Wa-La” – your blog is posted online for the world to see.

Once you’ve created your blog, you will need to decide how you will use it. Will it be a personal blog, full of thoughts and comments for yourself alone or maybe your family? Or will it be a business blog, with articles and tips for potential customers? If you want your blog to be found by others, blogging experts recommend that you begin by setting the title and descriptions for your blog. These are similar to the the title and descriptions you set for your website. Try to make them meaningful because they are what people will see when your blog is returned in a Search Engine. If your description is simply “my blog”, you may not draw the attention you’d like.

If you are blogging in the hopes of attracting customers, make sure to use wise use of words and links in your blogs. Try to avoid the “click here” link. Instead, opt for links within descriptive sentences. Add the HTML link within the sentence and attach it to the words that are closely related to the page or site you are linking to. For example, to link to my website I would not use “click here” as my link. I would say, “Please visit Christian Work at Home Moms for home-based work resources” with the link within the text.

There are many ways to get your blog noticed outside of optimizing them for Search Engines. For instance, there are entire websites devoted to listing blogs dedicated to any topic that you can think of. One of the best such websites devoted to women-created blogs, is BlogDaisy.com. You can also use free tools such a FeedBurner.com to track the traffic on your blog and to create a dynamic title box that can be used to display your blog headlines on your website or even in your email signature. Each time you update your blog, these headlines are instantly updated.

There are many ways to use a blog for either personal or business use. If used correctly, a blog can be a terrific tool to inform potential customers of your business. Be sure to update your blog at least once a week so that the content remains fresh and you remain in the Search Engines.

About the Author

Jill Hart is the author/editor of Christian Work at Home Moms, http://www.CWAHM.com.

12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog

by: Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian

"Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It"

This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12 reasons you should blog.

Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and running and THEN come back and read this :)

#1 - You Do Not Need To Know HTML

One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see.

#2 - You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh

Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often. And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers - and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their* clients with valuable resources.

#3 - Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines

Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of search engine optimization.

All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'.

#4 - You Get A Built-In Linking Structure

With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get 'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it.

Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap!

#5 - You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages

Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content, each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed content!

#6 - You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively

All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names.

#7 - You Create An Online Community

If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot!

#8 - You Initiate Conversations With Readers

Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction. Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner.

#9 - Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks

Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources.

#10 - You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily

Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts.

#11 - You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE

Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured, intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be.

#12 - You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources

Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together? Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU!

Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs you nothing!

Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised.

About the Author

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" - http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001.

A Person Is Known By the Blog He Keeps

by: Abhishek Sarkar

Literature is the soul of the wit. The best source of literature can be now found in blogs. The growing trend of ‘blogmania’ is slowly sweeping the netizens. Every person aspires to have a blog as a platform to publish his thoughts and be heard and read.

General surveys undertaken on blogs and bloggers shows a rising trend in blogging. A parallel platform for literary endeavor, the blogs are overthrowing the traditional journalistic norms. Publishing of news and views no longer remains the privilege of an elite minority. Anybody and everybody is free to get in touch and explore the writer within himself. The anamorphic nature of the human soul is best reflected in the blogs.
http://alphablog.rediffblogs.com/2005_20_03_alphablog_archive.html

A survey in the United States brought out a startling fact the 30% of the surveyed people read blogs. Also, 52% of the surveyed people advocate equal journalistic rights and freedom for the blogs. And the most striking fact is that 31% of the surveyed people revealed that they found blogs to be more credible than the newspapers.

The growing popularity of blogs can be gauzed from the fact that Yahoo, Google, MSN, Rediff and all the other bigwigs of the cyber world are experimenting with blogs and bloggers. Both free and paid blog hoisting sites have come up which offers a plethora of tools to make blogging a breeze.

MSN has even gone to the extent of making a common 'passport' database across all its services. So now, a MSN user can use his own personal 'id' across MSN messenger, Spaces and hotmail. Also, MSN has integrated its Spaces with MSN Messenger 7.0. The users of MSN Messenger 7.0 will have a tab labeled 'gleams' which will inform them when their contacts have updated their individual blogs.

Recent statistics from MSN shows that MSN has 170,000 daily blog updates. This number is huge considering the fact that most of the bloggers do not update their blogs on a daily basis.

The Literature of the new era is no longer limited to books. From Poems to Features, from Humor to Short Stories, everything can be found in the blogs.
http://alphablog.rediffblogs.com/2005_27_03_alphablog_archive.html
http://alphablog.rediffblogs.com/2005_03_04_alphablog_archive.html

Though good blogs are a trifle to find, yet close scrutiny will reveal every blog to be good in its own personal aspect. After all, blogs are a slice of the blogger's life and every one's life is a good source of learning experience.

http://alphablog.rediffblogs.com/
This also opens up the teaching value of blogs. Blogs can be a mirror of life, culture and society. What can be a better teacher than one with a plethora of experiences to offer on a silver platter?

About the Author

Abhishek Sarkar works as an Executive Content Developer and Analyst. He is currently associated with Alpha Blog.

Blog Your Business

by: Angela Booth

Does your business need a blog?

A blog is a Web log, an online journal. Blogs started out as
online diaries, in which diarists shared their everyday lives
with the world. From their beginnings as a weird Web fad in 1998,
blogs have moved on, and are well on the way to becoming a
standard business tool.

Why? Because in February 2003 Google.com bought Pyra Labs, the
company which owns the Blogger weblogging tool. Blogger.com, one
of the main sites providing blog software and hosting, boasted a
million hosted web logs in early 2003.

Google.com's interest in blogs indicates that blogs are
mainstream. A blog help your business in many ways, depending on
whether you create a private or a public blog. Blogs are so
useful that you'll want to create both.

=> Your business's private, internal blog

These days, no one works alone. Even if you're a solo business
operator, you have colleagues --- partners, contractors, and
suppliers with whom you communicate daily. A private blog makes
working with a group easier, because you can streamline your
interactions, saving time and energy.

A private blog can contain notes to yourself, or to colleagues.
It's a place to store information and tips that might not warrant
a special email message. You can post information like meeting
notes, project tasks and summaries, and updated price lists. You
can also post links to large files --- no need to email, fax, or
mail them to and fro.

Your blog is more useful than email, because blog postings are
dated, and easily searchable. You can post a message you want
everyone to read, and the message stays on the blog. With email,
you read and delete, or read and forget.

If you've worked on a project with someone in another state or on
the other side of the world, you've blessed email, because it
makes sharing information so easy. Using a blog to share
information is even easier than using email.

=> Your business's public blog

A business blog is a marketing tool. A blog can add value to your
Web site, or it can take the place of a Web site. Look on it as a
combination "What's New" Web site page, and an online journal.
Because of a blog's freewheeling nature, it's friendly and
relaxed.

If you don't have a site, your blog's a place to put your online
CV, portfolio and client list. You can, and should, use your blog
to express your personality and expertise.

If you have a Web site, your blog page builds loyalty, because
if you provide interesting content, your visitors will return to
your site. And because it's a Web page, your blog will appear on
search engines, attracting new clients.

Google has been treating blogs differently from other Web pages
for a couple of years. Whereas it takes a standard Web page/ site
a month to be indexed by Google, blogs are indexed daily. This
means that your blog is mega-cheap advertising. You can post
something on your blog and have it indexed by Google within a
day.

Will creating a blog help your business? As I suggested in the
article: "Get Googled And Build Credibility", because Google.com
is so popular and indexes so comprehensively, if you focus some
of your marketing and promotion time on getting your name out on
the Web, you're building your credibility, both online and
offline.

(You can read the complete article in the newsletter archives at:
http://www.digital-e.biz/newsletter.html

--click the Archive button on the Newsletter page.)

So go ahead, blog your business!

=> Blog resources <=

Blogger -create your own free blog(s) www.blogger.com Blogger
provides a template for your blog, and makes adding to your blog
as easy as writing an email message. The "Post" and "Publish"
buttons on the interface update your blog.

Weblog.com --- recently updated blogs: http://www.weblogs.com/

w.bloggar --- http://wbloggar.com/A clever and useful little
freebie to write and format your blog posts offline, then
automatically post them when you go online.

Angela Booth's Digital-e Blog: http://www.digital-
e.biz/blogger.html

***Resource box: if using, please include***

Veteran multi-published author and copywriter Angela Booth crafts
words for your business --- words to sell, educate or persuade.
E-books and e-courses on Web site. FREE ezines for writers and
small biz: http://www.digital-e.biz/

About the Author

Writer, journalist and author Angela Booth has been writing for print and online venues for over 25 years. She also writes copy for businesses.

Blogosphere Networking

by: Thom Singer

Blogosphere Networking
Blogging seems to be taking over the world, or at least everyone seems to be talking about blogs. However, there are a surprisingly large number of people who have no idea of blogs, blawgs, blogsphere, etc....

I was recently at a social gathering with some very educated and sophisticated individuals. In the conversation I mentioned my new book (“Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Keep and Grow Your Business Relationships” and my blog (“The Business Development / Networking Blog”). Everyone immediately understood the concept of a book.....but the idea of a blog created many a puzzled face.

I was asked a lot of questions (some folks had heard of blogging, others had not). The following are the top questions, and my feeble attempt to answer them:

1. Why did you start your blog?

I started it as an experiment to help educate myself about blogs. My company is interested in having an industry focused blog, and I decided to take it upon myself to jump into the blogosphere and get my feet wet. In addition, I write a recurring column for Professional Marketing Magazine, and I thought that regularly writing a blog would give me some good practice and help me uncover themes for future articles. I also felt I could use it to help promote my new book.

2. Has it been worth it?

Yes!!! On all three of the above reasons I have exceeded my goals. I now understand the commitment involved if we create an industry blog. I have already created a lot of positive material that can later be turned into articles for my marketing column. AND.....I have sold a bunch of copies of my new book .....even before it is released.

3. Are all blogs the same?

NO. There are as many types of blogs are there are writers. I have categorized them into three types, but I am sure others would have arguments about these areas:

A. Corporate Blogs. These are hosted by companies to promote their products and services or to communicate with clients.

B. Philosophical / Content Blogs. In this type, an individual (or group of individuals) writes on a specific topic and shares their opinions with the readers. Topics can range from business to sports to politics to religion, etc.... I would put The Business Development / Networking Blog in this category. The blogs from which I learn the most are philosophical/content blogs.

C. Diaries. In these blogs people record their daily experiences the way one would write in a diary. Some of these can be quite entertaining, as they allow the voyeur in each of us to look into someone else's private world. However, reader beware...some of these can reveal a bit more than you want to read (or see).

4. Why would I want to read blogs?

They are a great way to discover information on any particular topic or variety of ideas. Many bloggers have very good sources of information and they certainly have opinions. As with any media source, you need to beware of the authors intent and ulterior motives. Also, blogs can just be interesting to read.

5. What have you learned from writing your blog?

Like the term "World Wide Web" only a decade ago, "Blogs, blogging and the blogosphere" are the new new thing, and are not just a "fad". If people are not yet aware of blogs, they will be soon. More and more blogs are created every day and blogs will soon touch everyone who surf the internet.
Having your own blog, however, is not for everyone. You must be committed to writing on a regular basis, and not shy about sharing your opinions. I have learned that a blog can go stale if you do not make posts on a regular basis.

I also learned that when you blog, you are actually networking. At first it seemed like this was one sided, until I began to hear from people who were regularly reading my blog. I have developed new friendships with many bloggers who write about similar topics. Often one blogger will email another with a compliment or suggestion, and they will begin to correspond regularly. Just like any other type of business friendship, the relationship grows over time. This blog-networking leads to mutual understanding and respect between the bloggers and then can lead to business relationships and referrals.

6. Should I start a blog?

That is a question every person will have to answer for himself/herself. I
would suggest you begin by reading other blogs and getting familiar with what is out there in blog-land. If you believe that you have something to say...then by all means, start a blog. But remember to be patient and persistent. Like writing a book, it takes time and there is no guarantee that you will become widely read. However if you are dedicated, you will uncover many unexpected benefits from your blogging experience.

If you are interested in easily learning about blogs, I suggest you start by reading the posts and links in the series called “31 Days to Better Blogs" at www.problogger.net, hosted by Darren Rowse. This is the best collection of advice to the experienced and novice blogger.

Don’t forget to read my blog at www.thomsinger.blogspot.com.

About the Author

Thom Singer is the author of "Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Keep and Grow Your Business Relationships" (www.thomsinger.com), and write "The Business Development / Networking Blog" (www.thomsinger.blogspot.com)