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All about Bloggingby: Jean Pardue
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Enter: The Blog
Blogs / “weblogs” or blogging is the latest in Internet technology. Blogs are updated posts, crop up entries or personalized slices of life. They can be boring, informational or bizarre in nature.
For most Internet users and posters, a “blog” is a personal, unedited, and authentic Internet journal meant to be shared by an online community. |
Want everyone to know about your pet cat? Set up a Blog!
A blog website is a place where bloggers can publish anything; her secret thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments on issues, etc. It is more of an online diary with videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topic you can possibly imagine.
Blogs are interactive
Go loose! Blogs are made to welcome the insights and opinions of all and therefore, should not be written to sound overbearing or too formal. This kind of blog is a sure way to put off the readers. In the basics of blogging, speak just as if you are talking to a friend and one-on-one. This is not a book report.
You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about bloggers. But don't be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days. Blogging is all about individuals reaching out to other individuals. Having a blog of your own has its own set of advantages:
- Freedom of Expression - If you want people to hear what you have to say and give their opinion, this is one of the best way to create a line of communication between you and your critics.
- Networking - A blog is a fantastic platform for exchanging original ideas from potential customers to you as marketer of a certain product. Public opinion and point of view is better than just showing the price quote.
- Advertising platform for your Internet business - Blogging is a new way to advertise products, a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets and it is cost-effective.
- Feedback about products or content - The key to bloging is to use eye-catching titles with new ideas presented in your content. This will help you to gain a following and earn the respect of your readers. Blogging is an excellent way to exchange ideas between an Internet marketer and his/her consumer. Great for feedback and public opinion regarding services and products, even political and business matters are discussed regularly.
- Use a blog as a communication venue - Build a knowledge-based community of employees for your company. Also good for improving employee relations and identifying human resource issues before they become problems.
- Other blog-e-fits (benefits) - Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blogs to be seen often by as many people as you wish. You will benefit by having good exposure for your products and Internet services.
Blog Hosting Services
You will find a smorgasbord of blog hosting services on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of these services will work best for your business blog program?
Many business people are not well-informed about recent technological innovations online which would help them maximize their Internet marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to first learn about the services offered by blog hosts. An ineffective business blogging program may damage online marketing opportunities instead of helping them.
Some options to building an online business
A company may decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs:
- Host their own blog service
- Hire a hosting service
- Set up a “blog aggregator page” and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually. There are paid and free services for this available for individuals.
Business bloggers are required to have the latest blog features. If not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potentials.
Keep in mind that blogs should have the following basic essentials:
COMMENTS BOX - By initiating comments you are opening an opportunity for two way communication. In business blogs, they provide for a good customer feedback mechanism. The company will develop better customer relations based from loyalty and trust. Blogging is an innovative way to honestly talk with your customers.
TRACKBACK - This will help to maximize company and product exposure. Through this service, consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you. If your blog is popular in a specific online community chances are links going back to your blog site are everywhere - online, other blog sites or even business or personal websites! How is that for exposure?
CATEGORIES AND TAGS - Categorizing and tagging your blog can help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on a search for your information.
Categories act the same as an index because it classifies posts by subject matter such as business, fashion, photography, arts, E-commerce, online auctions, etc.
Tags also help tremendously in the classification process, especially in the super blog search engine Technorati. Potential customers and new business partners locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags.
RSS FEED - Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the Internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators. For instance, you may make daily comments about a particular subject or product and find that a business website has your RSS feed on the front page! How much better can it get?
Creating and continuing a blogging program for Internet business
If you are planning to establish a business blogging program for your company, numerable options should be made available to you by the blog hosting companies you are considering. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are much more appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages to best suit the needs of your Internet business or offline company.
You may want to visit a few of the blogs using the host first, read and look at the layout and design options before making a final decision. It is essential that the host provide a reliable technical support team. An 800 number for support is best.
OK, I have chosen my blog hosting company; Now what?
Now that you have signed on with a reliable blog host, a team should be ready to plan the design and structure of the blog: The team should:
- create a style that matches your business and meets the needs of your readers
- maintain an open, credible tone
- update the blog on a weekly basis (More than once per week is better)
- establish links from other website and blogs
- blog post should be in a conversational tone of voice (speaking voice)
- focus on goals of the business blog
- keep an honest, engaging conversational quality and leave room for comments from your customers and fellow bloggers
A blog is a reflective view of your company online so use it to gain prestige and to establish new friendships and business contacts. And, most of all: Keep it simply simple for your audience.
The coverage of the information in this article about blogging is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research about personal or business blogs because new facts are constantly being uncovered.
About the Author:
- Jean Pardue is a freelance article
writer and can be contacted at speed-writer@hotmail.com
. She also writes for her husband, Bob Pardue, who is a
stock photographer. http://www.parduephotos.com
- If you would like to have articles
like this one to list on your website or in your
publication please contact
Jean for availability and
usage rate information.
Disclaimer: Even though we have tried our best to provide solid and accurate information on these pages about how to set up a blog, DomainSitings.Com accepts no responsibility or does not insure or imply any degree of reliability of this material or by working with any of the blogging suggestions listed on this website. Each persons expertise in blogging websites and blog hosting vary greatly and are dependent upon the attitudes, ability and ambition of each individual webmaster. Please thoroughly check out any information you find on this site about getting a business online and always remember to check other options on the Internet for more blogging information. Learn more about blogging.
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