How and Why of Biz blogs

Blog is short for Web Log or Weblog and the Blogosphere is

the online blog world, some parts of which are hyperlinked

extensively to each other.

This is the Wikipedia definition: Blog is short for weblog. A

weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated

and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally

represent the personality of the author or the Web site.

I recommend that you read lots of people's blogs to learn what

blogs are. Go to your favorite search engine and type in the

word 'blog' and the subject you're interested in. For example,

'web design blog', or 'blog music', or 'sports blog'. You'll

find lots of blogs that way.

Blogs have become a way in which regular, non-technical people

can post information to the Web as easily as they can access it.

Why Are Blogs So Important?

Well, they're not that important, yet. But they could be soon,

and most likely will be. In fact, some would argue that they are

already vital in today's Web business world. I am not ready to

agree to that yet, but it is becoming more obvious to me over

time that blogs can no longer be ignored in business.

Online businesses can benefit from blogging by taking advantage

of a vehicle for easily posting new, original, and

business-related content on a regular basis.

Here Are Some More Business Benefits Of Blogging:

* Blogs help to position you and/or your company as experts

and leaders in your industry.

* They're interactive in nature. At the end of each blog entry

is usually a link that allows anyone to add their own comments

to your blog entries. This allows your customers and potential

customers to make comments about your products or services or

ask you questions to help them in their buying process.

* Blogs are marketed easily and quickly by their RSS feeds.

* Blogs allow you to stress your choice of products, services,

relevant news stories, quotes, pictures and more with your

audience, customers and potential customers.

* People are generous with adding links to your blog if the

content is good, especially within their own blogs. More

links means more traffic and better search engine rankings.

Here Are Some Ways In Which You Can Make Revenue From Your Blog:

1. Selling advertisements. Whether you use banners or text links,

if your site draws a regular audience interested in your blog

topics or theme, try to offer ad space to organizations that are

looking to market to your audience. In fact, if your blogs

becomes really popular then advertisers will call you.

2. Offering Google's AdSense. Google's website explains,

"Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers

of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their website's

content pages and earn money." Learn more about AdSense.

3. Affiliate Programs. Affiliate programs allow Web sites that

provide links to your site to receive payments or reciprocal

advertising in exchange for promoting your Web site. In the case

of blogging, this is reversed, where you post links within your

blog, and collect money from the owners of those links when they

result in a click-through and sale.

Here Are Some Websites Where You Can Get Your Blog Listed:

* BlogWise - http://www.blogwise.com

* Blog Search Engine - http://www.blogsearchengine.com

* Blog Hub - http://www.bloghub.com

* Blog Daisey - http://www.blogdaisey.com

* Get Blogs - http://www.getblogs.com

* Is Blogs - http://www.lsblogs.com


How To Blog For Business:

First you need to get blogging software. You can choose to

create a blog that is housed on another site such as

http://www.blogger.com (which is a blog service) or you can

host it on your own Web server. I recommend the latter since

the links that are developed by others pointing to your blog

won't be counted in the search engines. This is because the

links are attributed to domains, so a link to

http://MyNewBlog.blogger.com gives a link credit to

blogger.com and not your domain.

If your blog is a business blog, you really ought to host your

own blog as opposed to using a blog service. You'll need the

extra functionality and control.

If you plan on hosting your own blog and if you plan to use a

UNIX Web server platform, then you need to go with blogging

software such as Movable Type, for example. If you have a

Microsoft Web server platform for your site, then you'll need

software such as BetaParticle blog. Here is a great list of

various blog software: http://www.lights.com/weblogs/tools.html

Next you'll need a database to hook your blog up to. The

database is what stores the blog entries, among other things. If

you don't know if you have a database on or connected to your

website server, or if you don't know how to hook up your blog to

your database, contact your host company or Web server

administrator for help.

Once you have the blog set up on your domain (for example

http://www.MyWebsite.com/blog) and you've hooked it up to a live

database, you can start blogging. Generally, each entry is also

a day. So you can write a new entry every day, or whenever you

want, and that entry will show up on the blog at the top, moving

older entries below.

You ought to think of a theme for your blog. In other words, your

blog could be about your personal experiences in the industry

you're in. It could be about your company's product reviews, or

new services. It could be about your thoughts and opinions about

issues related to your industry. It could be a place where you

regularly find and list new resources to help others in your

industry. The list is endless. But be sure to stick to a theme

and be original. You want to offer something of value to your

website visitors.

Sticking to a theme helps you position yourself for future

advertisers and also makes for better reading for your visitors.

Furthermore, you want to give a good impression with your blog

with each and every entry if you want it to augment your online

business. Finally, sticking to a theme helps with the search

engines since it's believed that engines determine website

themes and use this information for ranking.

Of course your blog could be about personal things too. Many

blogs are just that, an online journal. But since we're

interested in Web business here, I am discussing business blogs

only.

What's great is that blogs get indexed easily and quickly by

search engines. Each entry is another "page" that can be

potentially listed in Google for example, which will drive more

traffic to your site.

Another neat thing about running a blog once it's set up is that

you do not need to be technical at all to make regular entries.

This is helpful if you want to delegate the writing to someone

else, since technical skills won't be a prerequisite. This

allows you to have the most qualified person regarding the

blog's theme and, hopefully the best writer, actually making the

entries.

Be creative. Add images to your blog entries to spice things up a

bit. Although blogging can be lonely, keep at it. Sometimes it

seems like you're just writing new entries each day for yourself

only. It may be a while before someone chooses to add a comment

to one of your entries. You may not hear from anyone for a long

time. But that doesn't mean people aren't reading it. In fact,

check your website statistics to see just how many people are

visiting your new blog. As you add more entries, get your blog

listed on other sites and market your blog. It will build, and

eventually you'll have a nice following of engaged readers.

Most importantly, be sure to pepper your entries with calls to

action. For example, if your business blog is attached to your

travel website and the blog's theme is traveling and finding

great travel deals all over the world, make sure you add a link

to an entry that points people to a travel special you're

running on your website. What would be even better is a blog

entry about the fantastic vacation you took to Hawaii and

included at the end was a link to cheap Hawaii vacation deals on

your website.