All About BLOGS and BLOGGING

 

Blogging has served as an incredible online marketing tool that is cost-efficient for your marketing strategy. Blogs are a user-friendly tool for spreading the word and disseminating information for effectively marketing your product online.

Firms that have blogs considerably have advantage over their competitors who don't. Here are just some of the advantages:

Word of mouth - There are currently 14 million blogs with more than 80,000 being added each day and about 30 percent of the 50 million users are readers. If your products and services are advertised through blogs and with information spreading quickly, a good product write up for your firm can reach several blogs by word-of-mouth. The more those kinds of posts spread around, the more it will be exposed to more readers.

Awareness and loyalty -- Blogs allow firms to have a direct communication line with their customers. By being able to respond to customer's question and comments, your readers and customers will be more willing to try out your products and services.

Feedback - Blogs are a good source for market research by looking at product reviews. It would also be easier for the marketing department to get insights about their current products by analyzing customers' behavioral patterns and feedback. The faster you gain insight to their comments and feedback, the sooner you can take action about your customers' concerns.

Community halo-effect. Bloggers are usually reasonable, friendly and downright helpful. Most of them will create a blogosphere of comments pertaining to your product. Make sure to make these people a part of your culture and your product will surely be recommended more times than you'll ever thought possible.

To further increase your blog exposure, you should begin submitting your business blogs to search sites and popular directories. Make sure that your blogs contain exclusive and original content so that readers will keep visiting and reading your blog.

Imagine your blog as a booth in the biggest trade exchange show on earth everyday. There are several marketing opportunities available for you for the taking.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is also important for better exposure. You should also consider effective keyword phrases that will help you generate high rankings in search engine traffic. This will make it easier for people to find your blog. More website traffic would also mean more potential sales for your product.

If you are convinced with the

Blogging started in the late 90s. Before, blogging was just a way to comment on an existing webpage, a medium for communication and interaction between the site owner and the visitors of a certain page. As the years went by and as more and more people developed tools to make blogging easier, blogging has evolved into pages upon pages of personal take on just about any subject matter. As blogging further increases its popularity, online advertising has caught up with this new trend. Here are the top five reasons why blogging is an effective Internet Marketing tool.

1. Blogging is simple. Nothing is as simple as getting your own opinions on the net through blogging. You don't have to learn html or programming. If you know how to use an ordinary word processor, you're set to go. Think of it as your typical journal where you can just write your ideas, experiences, and even product reviews so readers can learn more about your product.

2. Blogging is authentic. Excessive advertising has left a bad taste in consumers' mouths; it is common that most people question the credibility of the promoters' claims. In blogs however, real people share their real opinions and experiences about the products or services that they have used. When you read blogs like this, you just know that you are getting first-hand information about the product through a consumer's perspective.

3. Blogging is free. You can avail of blogging services such as Blogger and Livejournal for free. It absolutely costs nothing to set up your first free blog. If you're starting a business then this might be a no-cost solution for your online advertising needs. However, paid blogging services or hosting your own can generate more income and credibility for a rapidly growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

4. Blogging builds credibility. The more you write about a certain topic, the more people recognize you as an authority on the subject

Blog by email
by Greg Cryns
Did you know you can send an email to your Blogger blog and it will post automatically to your blog?

This feature is incredibly simple to set up.

1. Log into your Blogger account
2. Click on "Settings"
3. Click on "Email"
4. In the "Blog Send Address" put the email address where you want the post to be sent after it is posted on your blog
5. In the "Mail to Blogger address" put in a secret word in the box. This will be the email address you email to have its content posted on your blog.
Done!

Go here for WordPress emailer: http://codex.wordpress.org/Blog_by_Email

For Movable Type: http://www.zonageek.com/software/files/mt/mtmail-0.5/mtmail.html

This method of posting may be trouble in disguise if you don't check your post after sending it to your blog. Can you imagine sending the wrong email for a post by accident? Your love life would be a shambles! :)

To solve this potential problem, simply do NOT check the box that indicates "Publish". This will allow your post to be saved but not posted.
On the other hand, this method of posting to your blog could be a godsend if you are rushed and need something posted immediately, or if you are traveling and your internet connection is being timed and charged on a per minute basis.

Personally, I feel the ease of posting by email is wonderful. I use it often and I encourage you to try it out. Just don't forget to view your blog as soon as possible especially if you have actual visitors going to read your words of wisdom.