Before I address the following questions:
* What is a blog? and
* What can a blog do for my business?
let me pose a few “What if . . .” questions to you.
Keeping in mind that before your prospects and customers buy from you, they need to know you, like you, and trust you. In other words, they need to know, whether overtly or covertly, that they have a trusting and ongoing relationship with you. What better way to accomplish that goal than a blog?
Now, here are my What if . . . questions:
* What if less than two minutes after creating and publishing your blog, it were to be promoted to 10.000 prospects without any extra effort or cost on your part?
* What if every time someone clicks on a hyperlinked keyword that describes your hobbies; your occupation; your industry; or your favorite books, movies, music, or artist, your blog pops up?
* What if every time you leave a comment on someone else’s blog, you could leave a hyperlink to your website, blog, or email?
* What if someone enters your name or business name (completely or partially) into a major search engine, your website or blog pops up in their search results?
* What if every time you post content on your blog, it would bypass the spam filters and instantaneously appear on your subscribers’ desktop without any extra effort or cost on your part? ( - an excellent opportunity to get your sale, special message, or time-sensitive announcement into their hands, or actually in front of their eyes!)
* What if your satisfied customers had the opportunity to place their self-generated testimonies on your blog? (Although some might need encouragement, that’s all right. Make an incentive opportunity of it! Offer some incentive for their efforts.)
By now you should be beginning to see the powerful marketing potential a blog offers you. These are just some of the powerful customer relationship management features a blog offers you.
But wait!
There’s more!
What if you were to combine these powerful features with other online and offline efforts such as a blogathon, teleseminar, webinar, online articles, and others …?
Would that enhance your customer relationship management efforts?
I realize that successful marketing and sales are still a high touch entity, but when you combine high tech with high touch, you’re bound for success!!!
Now to answer the original questions, What is a blog? and What can a blog do for my business?:
A blog, short of web log, is an interactive web-based journal that encourages participation from viewers. It looks like and does everything a website does - and more! Entries, called posts, are published by date on the page according to your predetermined quantity and are archived in the margin according to your predetermined frequency. A blog served as an excellent supplement to your website and other marketing efforts.
A blog offers your business countless options, namely, a blog:
* gives your viewers, prospects, customers, or subscribers immediate access to you.
* helps to reduce your time spend distributing emails and other messages.
* improves your content delivery rates by 100%.
* improves your search engine rankings.
* publishes constantly fresh content.
* bypasses spam filters completely.
* improves your online visibility.
* Enhances your web presence.
* Generates more visitors.
* and more . . .
So, if you don’t already have a blog, I only have 1 question for you:
What are you waiting for? Don’t let this cutting-edge technology, this powerful marketing tool, pass you by. Online companies are popping up all over the internet offering you free blogs. My recommendation is that you grab one, or two - or more! Most, if not all, are extremely easy to create, but may be time-consuming, according to your already hectic schedule, to maintain.
If that’s the case in your situation, you might want to call in outside help. Consider the high school computer techie next door, or the college-age computer-major son or daughter of a friend who could always use a few extra bucks.
Or, if you don’t have either option available to you, or want to see samples first, I invite you to take a look at what I’m doing by going to:
www.MasterBlogBuilder.blogspot.com/
I leave you with this wish:
May you always be successful in looking for and using new and creative ways to maximize your earning potential.
Remember: When you maximize your potential, we all win! When you don’t, we all lose.
Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management and Marketing Consultant, known as The Master Blog Builder works with individuals, managers, and small business owners to help them maximize their personal and business potential. Reach him at http://www.MasterBlogBuilder.blogspot.com/
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Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang states “blog noun An Internet website containing an eclectic and frequently updated assortment of items of interest to its author. 1999-. [Shortening of weblog.] So blogger, noun”
More meaningful citations could be obtained from the Web. Below is a list of these.
- 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.
- A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.
- A blog is information that is instantly published to a Web site. Blog scripting allows someone to automatically post information to a Web site. The information first goes to a blogger Web site. Then the information is automatically inserted into a template tailored for your Web site.
Blogging has come a long way indeed. Not only can you do all the above mentioned, you could now also make full use of it to promote and expand your Internet business.
Savvy marketers have now accepted blogging as one of the best Internet marketing methods that is free because you could create your blog almost immediately at no cost compared to the setting up of a conventional website.
Publishing information in your blog to help establishing your presence in the Web is now a growing phenomenon. Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to enhance the visibility of your products and services.
The following are some of the things one could do to improve one’s Internet online business:-
1) Offer advice to your visitors on specific tips, tricks and opportunities related to your own business with the objective to increase awareness not only about yourself but also your business. This will establish you as an authority with customers, prospects and casual visitors through your publications.
2) Prompt and encourage readers to leave their comments and feedback. Positive feedback could some times help you to improve your website design, layout, content and hence your business.
3) Make periodical announcement and broadcasting on any new changes or offers available in your main websites, for instance, new products and/or services.
4) Old and past publications and postings in your blog could be kept in an Archive file which is very friendly for retrieving. You can therefore keep track of all your business plans and old but important information.
5) Any articles which you have written and posted could be reprinted by others for their own websites with your permission on condition that the resource box about the author remains unchanged i.e. with all your important URLs intact. This would link your websites to other websites hence exposing your business to more visitors.
6) Always add fresh and quality content to it on a regular basis since search engines like fresh content. As a result, search engines will list your website in their directories. As soon as you have pages of your blog in the search engines, you will start attracting free traffic to your site without having to paying a dime for it.
7) Exchange links with others could improve your ranking on search engines. Affiliate links in the form of advertisement banners could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.
In short, there is no limit to what you could do with your blog. You can include your ideas, opinions, expertise in your field of work, resumes, home recipes, pictures, streaming audio or video clips, e-books, poetry, products, services, consultations etc., etc.
Unlike most normal websites that are relatively permanent with only occasional updating, blogs allow you to post any new content almost on daily basis. Also, websites are usually less personal as far as their relationship with the visitors is concerned.
Visitors could leave comment in your blog after their visits which sometimes could prompt a follow-up discussion between you and them resulting with both parties learning from each another.
Share your ideas, opinions and thoughts to assert yourself as an authority in your field. The visitors who are your customers or potential customers would remember your blog and keep coming back.
Copyright© 2005 Sung-Liang Woon
http://www.johnwoon.com
About The Author: John Woon (Sung-Liang Woon) is a Latex Consultant with about 30 years of experience.
1) Online medications at DISCOUNTED PRICES: http://lowpricepharmacy.blogspot.com
2) Rubber and Latex Consultancy SERVICES: http://jwconsultants.blogspot.com
3) Diabetics’ Valuable ONE-STOP Guide: http://diabetics-guide.blogspot.com
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Google is moving in so many directions, it can be somewhat
difficult to keep track of all the services and tools
offered by this premium search engine. For the seasoned
webmaster as well as the ordinary surfer, keeping a clear
picture of what Google is offering is sometimes a little
overwhelming.
Recently, there has been a deluge of new products from
Google. If you hit the ‘more’ button on the Google Home
page, you will see a smattering of Google services and
tools. Including Desktop 2, Print, Maps, Google Earth…
you can even search and browse mail-order catalogs.
Now comes Blog Search - where Internet users can now
search blogs for their information. This is a welcomed
service, especially for bloggers. Google’s embracing of
blogs started with the purchase of Blogger.com and got
sidetracked with the ‘costly’ argument over which
syndication standard to use. Most favored RSS while
Google promoted the Atom standard for its blog feeds.
Blogs are online journals where ordinary people give
opinions, information and links on topics that matter
to them. These topics can be anything under the
sun: from politics to needlepoint to corporate blogs
to your local school’s basketball team. Blogs give a
real insight into what ordinary surfers believe and feel
about a subject.
It’s an instant snapshot of our world in words and pictures
– but mostly words.
Blogs are often associated with RSS because RSS is
the syndication standard that sends out the blog’s content
in little snippets to all interested parties. Subscribers
to these blogs can read these headlines in News Readers or
Aggregators and then click on the links to get more
information. Keep in mind, the original acronym for
RSS is ‘Rich Site Summary’, but that meaning has been
somewhat replaced by the major benefit of RSS which
is ‘Really Simple Syndication’.
Many browsers are now coming with an RSS reader already
built-in, such as the popular Mozilla’s Firefox browser.
Microsoft’s new Longhorn version of Windows will have
RSS built into its operating system.
Recently Google has embraced RSS in its Desktop 2 program
and in the XML powered Google Sitemaps. Now comes Blog
Search, a way to search all the information in these blogs.
In the past, most bloggers have used the Technorati site
to search blogs as well as RSS search offered by MSN and
Yahoo.
Some things you should know about Google Blog Search:
1. How to access it? You can use the blog Search site
www.blogsearch.google.com or www.search.blogger.com
You may also use the Navigational Bar on any BlogSpot
blog, plus you will also be able to access it from your
Blogger Dashboard. The Blogger Navbar gives you the option
of searching within the current blog or searching all blogs.
Major criticism — Google has not placed a link on its
home (front) page of Google search; as blogs and blogging
becomes even more popular maybe this error will be fixed.
2. Who’s included? It should be noted that Google will index
all blogs using a site feed (RSS or Atom) and you can get
your Blog indexed just by using an automatic pinging service
offered by such sites as www.weblogs.com
Please Note — Your older posts may not be present in search
results, Google started indexing feeds around June, 2005.
Older posts may be included at a later date.
3. What search operators or query words are supported? You can
use these standard Google Search modifiers and Google will
restrict your results — link:, site:, intitle: plus new
ones for Blog Search — inblogtitle:, inposttitle:,
inpostauthor:, and blogurl:
4. Can I subscribe to search results? Yes, just use the News
Aggregator of your choice and subscribe to the feeds at
the bottom of the results page, then you can be automatically
updated as new posts come online.
5. Can I use Safesearch? Yes, Google lets you filter out any
unwanted sites.
More information on Blog Search click here:
http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html
Blog Search is a great extension to the Google Search Empire,
it will give surfers access to a greater range of material.
No doubt, this is not the end of what Google has to offer to
its loyal followers. Persistent speculation and rumors abound,
it just won’t go away, rumors that Google is NOT only designing
its own browser (it owns the domain gbrowser.com) but its own
operating system.
But why stop there — if you’re dreaming of the perfect
search — you must go further. Google must go further!
And since we’re dreaming…
How about a Google delivered Instant Search embedded in a
Google RSS Powered Operating System on a Google designed
ultra-portable notebook computer with a wireless cell phone
modem, accessible anywhere in the world…
…wake me up when it arrives!
The author is a self-admitted Google addict and user! You can find
his main Internet Marketing Site here: Google Cash File
Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins. Get a Free Desktop Calendar & Planner compliments of
the Author and DATEwise. This article may be freely distributed if this
resource box stays attached.
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