TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG?

Did you know that there are at least TWO blog entries are created every second?

With more than 50,000 blogs on the Internet, there’s no wonder why so many people are trying to get in on the action going to blogger.com, wordpress.com and other free blog sites to create their own web diary.

But if you are a business owner, what does it do for you?

For starters, if you have a small business, you may consider a blog instead of a web site. Web sites are static and blogs are interactive. On a blog you can talk with your customers in an open forum. It is much easier to update than a web site and it is a low cost alternative to having a web site.

If you have a larger company, you may consider having a blog in addition to your current web site. By having a blog along with your web site, your web site ratings will go up on the search engine. Business blogs also enable a CEO to educate consumers on a particular topic or area of expertise. Like a bylined article, the blog positions the CEO as the expert in a particular area.

If you decide that blogging is for you, here are some tips:

• Length – Try to keep your paragraphs short and your length a few paragraphs long. You don’t want to be too wordy or your blog entry won’t get read. Get to the point quickly and state your case.

• Photos – Use as many photos as possible to break up the copy. You can download photos from free sources on the web or you can use your own photos to state your case. Remember to resize your own photos so that they are not too big for the blog site.

• Design/Look – When you are first starting out, you may consider using the stock templates that you can download from one of the free blog sites. But, once you’ve been doing it a while, you may want to jazz it up by having an expert create you a custom template that matches your graphic identity.

• Partnerships – The more links you have the better your search engine optimization will be. If you talk about a company, product or service, make sure to hyperlink their website/blog. This will help your site and it will help the site in which you are linking.

• Write Often – Try to write a new blog every day or every other day to keep the site fresh and newsworthy. (At a recent seminar that I gave on blogging, someone asked me when I find the time to write. I responded by saying that I never blog during the day, only after hours and at 3 am when things are quite!)

• Create a Domain Name – If you are serious about your blog, make sure to secure a domain name. Like a web site name, this name should be unique to your blog.

• Comment on other blogs – Read as many blogs as possible and comment often. This will also help your search engine optimization.

• Link your site to other sites – Like Del-icio-us, Digg, and more. You may even want to post one of your blogs on Ezine Articles once a week to attract more visitors.

If you want to increase traffic to your blog, remember to do some of the traditional marketing techniques, including direct mail, publicity, email marketing, and even putting your blog on your business card and newsletter to get the word out.