Got Blog?

In 1999 I asked my friends and colleagues if they blogged. The responses I received ranged from odd looks to questions about the blogging practice. The end results of my findings was "Blog" was a new term and not highly recognized. That was then, a half million blog users ago.

Blogs have become and I do believe will continue into their plight of greatness for sometime, until a new technology slides into place. For the time being, blogs are a great way to define who you are to your visitors and provide dynamic content that the search engines go nuts over.

Clogged email boxes and spam eaters have taken a dramatic effect on the once powerful email marketing tool. As email marketing loses its effect, marketers and small businesses are seeking ways to fulfill this lost art of communication between staff and customers. Blogging could be that much needed answer for you.

SO what is a blog?

Blogs are a time and date stamped, easy to search, web based journal or self publishing tool. Blogs can have a corporate style, but in most cases are written by one person in a relaxed, candid atmosphere. True personality usually shines threw in the opinions of the blog writer. You do not have to be a writer to produce a blog. Even so, many blogs owners become recognized as small journalists, as the writer speaks their mind or offers self analyzed materials on their preferred subject matters.

You may think at this point, that a blog does not sound like a business tool.

Let's take blogging into a business approach and see how we can benefit.

Problem:

Many marketing methods and advertising spiels fall on blind eyes and deaf ears across the net today with such a medium we have created where advertising is abundant and often shoved at us in every direction.

Solution:

Visitors will come to your blog of their free will to read your newest content of choice, giving you a higher ratio of targeted visits.

Problem:

Email marketing is losing ground. Overflowing email inboxes and spam filters that don't deliver your ezine.

Soultion:

Using your blog as a web based area for your product and service announcements and updates. When someone subscribes to your blog or RSS feed, they will receive automatic updates that include the headline, summery and URL of your new entries.

Bonus:

Email gets deleted ? Blogs get indexed in search engines!

Problem:

Internet marketing can be a nonpersonal medium, gaining trust becomes increasingly harder and more important to gain new customers.

Solution:

Blogging can give your visitors, existing and potential customers a great area to gain insight about the face you present to the world. If you're a small business owner to a large corporate business, you can benefit by giving your company or web site personality via blog.

Now let's take a look at blogs from another angle. Rss and/or live feed. You may be thinking, do I Really Need to Know About Rss?

Yes, but we are not going to give a full history of RSS here. What you need to know is that RSS is the "code" that underlies a blog. It includes a headline, a short summery of the entry and the URL of the page that the new story has been posted to. In order for users to subscribe to RSS feeds they will need to download a news aggregator. There are many available for free, we recommend NewsGator http://www.newsgator.com for its ease of use within Microsoft Outlook.

Visitors and other websites can syndicate your RSS feeds to their desktop, their email, newsreaders and on their own websites. Talk about getting the word around! Submitting your RSS feed, can get you listed in hundreds of new emerging RSS feed directories. Of course this will bring traffic to see what your feed is about to those looking to syndicate them to their own sites or readers. Also creating more links pointing to your site.

Let me touch on one of the most important features of a blog. Search engines love them. Most bots including google will visit and reindex blog pages daily. Yahoo will index your RSS free and quickly.

There are many ways and places you can begin your blogging journey. You should first decide if you want to house the blog on your site or let other sites manage your blog system. For this we recommend www.blogger.com, now owned by Google. The google toolbar has a one click Blog This button that can make blogging quick and painless. You can set the blogger.com blog files to ftp to your host for you so that your files are housed on your server. There are many blog services online today, and there are many free and low cost scripts that you can easily run your own blog from your site without the need of any other service provider.

If you would like to find out more about blogs and blog services we invite you to visit our resource section at http://www.masteradvertising.com.

We hope to provide many learning materials and resources for the online promoter using blogs and rss feeds for the online advertising medium.

About The Author

Dawn Wentworth has been providing insight to site promotion sense 1994. http://www.masteradvertising.com

---

10 Benefits of Being a Blogger

I have been a blogger since September 2004 but only... Read More

The Holy Grail that Online Advertisers, Merchants, Publishers, and Shoppers have been Looking for!

For Online Publishers/RSS Feeds users - RSS (Real Simple Syndication)... Read More

A Person Is Known By the Blog He Keeps

Literature is the soul of the wit. The best source... Read More

RSS for Newbies; A Quick Tutorial

"RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a new... Read More

Five Ways A Blog Helps You To Market Your Business

Want to advertise online without spending a fortune? Get a... Read More

Amazing Information About Blogging

A few months back, at the ITEA conference I saw... Read More

Start Blogging Now: 10 Reasons Why You Really Need a Blog for Your Business

1. It is perfect for creating a web presence for... Read More

Blog and Ping is Dead

Unfortunately, this formerly reliable method of getting listed in Yahoo... Read More

To Blog Or Not To Blog - A Laymans View

We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind... Read More

What Consumers Need To Know About RSS Feeds

Feeds are simple, really. What's even more exciting is that... Read More

Superbloggers Secrets

Blogs are extremely hot right now. Everyone is starting them,... Read More

Blogs and Networking

In the middle 1990's everyone started talking about needing a... Read More

Small Business: To Blog or Not To Blog

A weblog, or "blog" started out as a personal journal... Read More

Blogs: Why, Where and How

So you have heard about the blogs or you are... Read More

Prescription Blogs are Helping to Educate the Consumers on Prescription Consumption

Blogs are being used on a more consistent basis due... Read More

Dear Web Diary!

Blogging is hot and getting hotter, with more and more... Read More

Easy RSS for Bloggers

Do you need help adding RSS feeds to your blogger?... Read More

Blogging Communities Turn Faceless Strangers into Close Friends

I've been searching the Internet for blogging sites for a... Read More

Gathered Statistical Data Announces that Blogs will Dominate the Internet in Less than a Few Years

... if not months to come.At a distinctive and stable... Read More

Details of Getting a Blog

Blogs, the abbreviation of Web Logs (online journals), are becoming... Read More

What is a Blog? In Plain English Please

If you are fairly new to the Internet, you have... Read More

Shared RSS - Syndication for the Rest of Us

RSS Syndication or RSS Newsfeeds (RSS Feeds for short) all... Read More

Brief History of Blogs

So where did all these blogs come from? How did... Read More

Marketing With Blogs - Part 2

In part 1 of this article series on marketing with... Read More

Blog and Ping: The Basics!

The buzz words on the internet at the moment are... Read More

Feeds For Small Business: Real World Examples

A merchant I was talking to the other day asked... Read More

Cash In Your Blog - 4 Ways to Profit From The Hidden Revenue In Your Blog

Most webmasters and online business owners know that a blog... Read More

Business Blogs and Their Benefits

Blog is a medium for self-expression on web. Blogs are... Read More

The Blog Revolution: How To Use Blogs to Generate Solid Web Profits

Blogs were originally only meant to be 'Web Logs', or... Read More

17 Mistakes Professionals Make with Their Blogs

Are you getting results from your business blog? Is it... Read More

Blogs and RSS - Why Do I Need This Stuff?

If you've been under a rock for the last year... Read More

RSS Feeds, What They Are and How to Use Them

What does RSS stand for?RSS "Really Simple Syndication" was created... Read More

The Hybrid Blog and Ping

For the past two years, one of the best SEO... Read More