Genuine Online Opportunities

I know, I know. I can hear some of you groaning now! Many of you already have a blog and understand its importance in gaining visibility for your business. But I know many others are still resistant to the idea. You believe it takes too much time and effort, you don’t think you are a great writer, you don’t know how to set one up, you don’t know what to write about….I understand all of the reasons that may be holding you back.

If you already have a traditional, “brochure” style website for your business that’s great. You should keep that as a place for prospective clients and customers to visit to find out more about you and what you offer. I use my blog as my main site, meaning I don’t have a separate, static website. That’s a personal choice. Many people choose to have both, with the blog being linked to from the main site.

If you don’t currently have a blog, there are several important reasons why you should consider it:

Visibility: If you are doing even just some of your business using the web then you obviously need to have an online presence. Having a blog that you post to regularly is a wonderful way to capture and keep the attention of your prospects. When they see that you are posting consistently updated content, they are more likely to return to your site.

Search Engine Optimization: This doesn’t mean you need to study up and implement a ton of SEO techniques yourself. But blogs by their very nature are dynamic, meaning the content is updated often. In Google’s eyes, this is a very good thing-it shows that their users are getting fresh information. A blog is a great way to get your business to rank well in the search engines.

Community Building: By allowing comments on your posts you are promoting conversation and encouraging feedback. It can even help you to perform “market research” and find out what it is your target market needs from you. This feedback can also be helpful for coming up with ideas for future posts.

Positions you as the Expert: Something interesting happens once you begin posting useful content regularly and attracting subscribers. You become seen as a thought leader in your niche. This leads to more opportunities, more relationships and more business. It’s a terrific way to communicate the value of what you have to offer to prospective clients and customers.

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Everywhere we look these days we see mentions of blogs, bloggers, blogospheres, blogging and so forth. Are you wondering what all the hype is about and whether you should be blogging?

Blogs can be anything you want – practical journalism, an online personal diary, op ed commentary – the options are endless! The term ‘blog’ is derived from ‘web log’ which harks back to the early days of blogging, where simple online journals could be used to narrate anything people wanted. Similar to paper journal people have kept through the ages, the online version could be used to record everyday life details such as what they had for dinner, to how they were feeling that day. Blogs, like everything computer based, have evolved to be easier to use and more accessible to people from all walks of life. Now people have realised they can easily share their feelings and thoughts on any topic with the world!

The medium of blogging has exploded in popularity. You may have heard people talking in non internet media about the impact of blogging on modern culture. Social bookmarking is another often mentioned new phenomenon which incorporates blogging. The types and quantity of blogs on the web grows daily. From blog content matter such as gossip & celebrity news which have huge readerships. Discussion, commentary & community building for an infinite scope of special interest subjects from video games to gardening are popular also.

Blogging is not necessarily a frivolous past time though, some of the most accurate information about the Iraq War comes from people embedded in the Middle East who use their blogs to instantly share their unique perspective and first hand information with the rest of the world. Many businesses use their blogs to advertise special offers, product announcements and other events for their business.

So now that you understand what blogs are, and where they came from, it’s back to the original question.

Should you blog?

You may have heard of bloggers commanding audiences which number in millions of readers and others who have turned the simple exercise of blogging into multi-million dollar income. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that? All you have to do is establish a free blog, write a couple of posts, and you’ll be relaxing with the rich on the beach – right?

Not so fast – a few things to consider first.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Popularity: 1% [?]