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To Blog Or Not To Blog - A Laymans View
We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind of Harry
Potterish, doesn't it?
If you're over 20 years old, you probably think this is some
crazy sci-fi phenomenon, or I've simply lost my mind. Don't fret,
the vast majority of people don't know what a blog is all about
and more importantly, why it matters to them.
If you're under 20 you can stop reading because you probably
know all about blogs, and the value they have in sharing
information. You've been trading game-breaking codes, South Park
clips, and jokes through blogs for months now or maybe even
years.
In a recent article, Johnson Ong quips "I have a blog. Doesn't
everyone? You mean you don't? How uncool are you? According to
Merriam-Webster, 'blog' was the word of the year last year. Not
having your own blog is like not having your own Gmail account.
What? You don't have Gmail either? My God, what are you? A
caveman!"
Over or under, cool or uncool, I want to address blogs from a
business standpoint, and the tremendous value they can deliver to
business. There are several reasons that developing a blog is a
tremendous strategy for any business.
1) It will increase your web presence significantly the search
engines love blogs!
2) It will allow your business to educate customers and
prospects about certain subjects, and appear as experts
3) It will raise your business profile with your vendors and
other strategic partners, if they are invited to contribute to
your blog
4) Other blogs can, and will, take information from your blog,
and you will increase your exposure to anyone that participates
in the 'taking' blog
5) Blogs accept subscribers, and everyone that subscribes to
your blog will be constantly updated (pinged) by you with current
information
So What is It?
The full name for a blog is a weblog. It's a repository for
articles, newsletters, information, and discussion boards. It's
like a 'what's new' page on the internet in whatever subject you
choose. When people research any topics that you have on your
blog, they may very well end up on your blog through their
search. If you've done it right, your blog is of course, fully
branded to your company, and linked to your main website.
If you keep current articles, and information on your blog,
you will receive hits from people looking for information about
those subjects. You will also receive hits from other blogs, and
they will then distribute your information to their own
audiences.
You will receive hits from contributors of articles or news
items, as well as people looking for those particular
contributors through a search engine.
Hopefully, you get the picture. Your web traffic should
increase exponentially through the proper use of a blog.
Business Blogs
Business blogs have yet to sweep the business community, which
presents a significant opportunity to adapt the technology to any
business. It will allow you to share expertise and knowledge with
a much larger audience, which should create a significant
benefit.
There is specific blogging software, and you will have to
learn how to create an effective and valuable blog. You will also
have to learn how to acquire and produce current industry
information to populate your blog with articles that will
maintain interest and value. Yes, there is an element of work to
it you didn't think it was free, with no effort required, like
the mumps did you?
As you add current information to your subject area, or to
secondary subject areas that you may include in your blog, your
chances of more hits are higher. If you continually contribute
self-generated articles and news items to the appropriate subject
areas, your chances also increase. In addition, there are sources
that allow you to publish their materials, which can be used to
increase the value of the blog, and therefore the likelihood of
being found on the good old inter-web.
So How Does It Work?
If you still push the Pause/Break button in the upper
right-hand corner of your keyboard to request permission from
your boss for a visit to the bathroom, you can skip this part.
Otherwise, it's really not too hard to follow.
Without getting too technical, there are many web robots
(bots), crawlers, and spiders, and similar technologies that have
RSS Reader capability. That's the stuff that is specific to
blogs. They are basically looking for news, and blogs have that
news.
If you do it right, these bots, crawlers, and spiders find
your blog, and send information elsewhere, which is just what you
want. Your blog is basically yelling at these web 'beasts' to
"come on in and take this great stuff I've got."
For example, these web 'animals' include yahooslurp,
googlebot, feedstercrawler, pubsub, syndic8, msnbot, newsgator,
CP30, & R2D2.
O.K., the last two were Luke Skywalker's buddies, but the rest
are real.
It will take 4 to 6 weeks for the search engines to adjust
rankings but the ultimate result will be that you will progress
up the ladder in the engines in the various topic areas that you
feature. When people are searching for technologies or subjects
that are being discussed in your blog, they will find you on the
search engines.
That should be a hint that you should have content on your
blog about the subjects that are most often searched.
When a subject is searched that is covered by one of your
branded, self-generated articles, your fully branded information
may be pulled to another blog, or to a specific person doing a
search in that topic area. You can post that same article on your
website, and it won't go anywhere. However, on your blog it gets
a shot of super juice, and may just get pushed through any number
of doors.
Linking The Benefits Increase Your Brand
When website owners and bloggers (yeah, I'm now a blogger!)
think of linking, they are usually referring to inbound links
from external websites and blogs. For example, if you had a link
to your website on the website of another business.
While adding more inbound links on external sites is
important, there is also a sort of 'reverse' link strategy
associated with blogs.
Your blog's incoming links will provide another benefit when
someone is referred to an article in your blog from another
website. For example, through GooglePageRank, the receiving page
(you) gets a boost up the search engine when that happens, which
helps the blog overall by boosting the popularity of the blog,
which in turn is what increases the search results, which in turn
drives up the search engine rankings.
What!? I wrote it and I have to read it six times to really
follow what I'm saying.
Basically, the more people that visit your blog when they come
from other sources, the more likely it is for people to find you
when searching for a whole myriad of topics. That type of benefit
does not exist with normal website traffic, because those visits
don't effect web site rankings on the search engines. But blog
traffic that is through a link from another site will drive you
up the search engines. There that's much more clear!? As clear as
fog in a low-lying bog. Ouch!
Web designer Sue Studios says; "Blogs are highly strategic,
here-to-stay desktop tools that can strengthen relationships,
share knowledge, increase collaboration, and improve branding.
Think of the potential for your e-newsletter strategies:
1) Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog,
extending life and creating a massive conversation
2) You can offer a bi-directional forum to customers to get
true, personal opinion on your products and services
3) Company experts can start a blog and become industry
experts, helping your company edge out competition and, through
this interactive forum, draw customers into another exchange of
information and thoughts."
Well, it's snowing out so I think I'll go blogging! Wait, is
that something you do in the snow, or is it something you do to
stay out of the snow?!
Or is it a Celtic dance? Or should the Steelers have blogged
that kick Sunday? I'm confused.
Dennis Schooley is the Founder of Schooley Mitchell Telecom
Consultants, a Professional Services Franchise Company. He writes
for publication, as well as for schooleymitchell.blogging,com and
franchises.blogging.com, in the subject areas of Franchising, and
Technology for the Layman. http://www.schooleymitchell.com,
888-311-6477, [email protected].
MORE RESOURCES updated Wed. April / 24 / 2024
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