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Depending on your business,
starting a blog could be a low-cost method of boosting your
profile with potential customers and the media and even
helping your Web site's ranking in "organic" search results.
It could also be a time-consuming effort that yields
relatively little benefit to your bottom line. It all
depends on the commitment you're willing to make to your
blog and its content.
Although this may now be unnecessary, let me first point out
what a blog is for those who still may be a bit uncertain.
(If you're reading this, you probably already know.)
A "blog" (formerly "Web log") is a publishing tool -- there
are many on the market -- that is simple to set up and
update. You can usually have one up and running in minutes,
literally. They are typically hosted and entirely Web-based.
Regardless of the provider, they also tend to resemble one
another. Here are several of the leading vendors:
Google's Blogger
SixApart, who owns three blog products: Moveable Type,
TypePad, and LiveJournal)
WordPress
There are many more hosted blogging applications and all the
major portals have blogging tools, including AOL, Yahoo,
MSN, and Lycos. All of those are free, as is Blogger.
Blogs that are merely transparent marketing vehicles and
carry only ad copy or promotional messages are probably
destined to fail. They will likely be ignored because
they're not perceived to have any real content or value.
There's too much noise on the Internet for people to waste
time reading your blog if they're not getting any helpful or
interesting information. However, a blog that doesn't in
some way promote your products or service is, by definition,
not a marketing vehicle. Finding the right balance between
promotional copy and informational content is where the art
of marketing comes in.
You should really see your blog as a way to make people
aware of your products and services rather than as a source
of direct sales. Generally, blogging is probably better
suited for service providers (where reputation and other
intangibles apply) than for product sellers (where price or
location are typically bigger factors).
But let's make all this much more concrete.
If you're a local realtor and you put up a blog that
contains only your listings, you're not going to get as much
response in the end as if you provide tips or informational
pieces, in addition to your listings, that somehow help
buyers or sellers.
For example, content and informational articles such as "Ten
things to do before selling your home" or "How to minimize
closing costs" or "Should I get an ARM or a 30-year fixed
loan" are going to be valuable content and ultimately help
build "your brand." If you don't have time to generate
original posts -- although blogs can be informal and posts
relatively short -- you can write introductions or summaries
of publicly available articles related to your business or
industry and post links to third-party sites on your blog.
Once you've got a blog, you'll need to let people know it
exists or otherwise enable your blog to be found. The "blogosphere"
is something of a Tower of Babel, and rising above the din
can be a challenge. In many cases, search engines will index
your blog. But it probably won't rank highly in search
results unless it's about a very obscure subject.
In other words, promoting your blog is analogous to the
challenge of promoting your Web site. And all the techniques
that apply to promoting your site apply to your blog.
If you're feeling exhausted at this point, you probably
won't have the patience or energy to maintain a blog
(posting frequency can vary, but should be regular). You may
also see a blog and your site as redundant.
But if you give it time, you could find a blog helps
establish your credibility or expert status in your field,
which will ultimately help deliver clients or customers. Of
course, you don't have to decide all this in the abstract.
You can try it for a month or two and see if you like it or
if the life of a blogger just isn't for you.
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