Blogging for Fun & Profit
BY JIM
EDWARDS
Unless you've been under a
rock for the last year, you've heard the term "blog" once or
twice.
To most people, a blog simply
represents a glorified online "diary" where geeks, computer
nerds, and lonely teenagers record their thoughts in
cyberspace.
However, many people don't
realize that blogs are quietly revolutionizing the way
companies and customers interact about everything from
existing products to new ideas and improvements in customer
service.
In short, blog-style
communication has come of age and anyone with an online
business better sit up and take notice fast!
In the beginning, blogs were
basically an online diary to record your thoughts; but blogs
have now evolved into dynamic websites that non-technical
people can update immediately without HTML editors or FTP
programs.
Blogs allow their authors to
make instant website updates through a computer anywhere in
the world with a Web browser and Internet connection.
Blogs also allow readers to
respond to the author's posts, provide additional information,
links, expanded opinions, and more.
In short, an active blog
creates an interactive community with the author as the hub
and the readers as the spokes of the wheel that keep the whole
cycle turning round.
Unlike traditional "static"
webpages where content rarely (if ever) changes, an active
blog evolves in a state of constant and never-ending renewal.
With blogs, smart online
businesses re-discovered a principal that small "mom and pop"
stores understood for years: know your customers and stay in
close tune with their wants, needs, and desires.
Large companies throw billions
of dollars down a black hole every year to literally "guess"
what people want to buy. Most call it the "Marketing
Department."
On the flipside, smart online
businesses understand that blogs allow you to avoid guessing
what's on your customers' minds and provide an active and
up-to-the-minute means for them to tell you exactly what they
do and don't like about your services, products, and virtually
any other aspect of the market.
This lightning fast
communication makes it possible for small companies to
literally snatch huge market share away from more traditional
companies.
Blogging also has a distinct
advantage over traditional email newsletters in that
subscribers can get updates without having to receive an email
message. Through the power of RSS (real simple syndication),
subscribers get notified of updated content though an RSS news
reader.
Bottom Line: Publishing a blog
with an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to means your
content NEVER gets blocked by a SPAM filter.
Blog software basically comes
in 2 flavors: hosted and stand-alone. Hosted blogging
solutions make it extremely easy to get set up with a blog,
often in just a couple of minutes.
If you know how to type, you
can create a blog. Log on to
Blogger.com and you can set up a blog free of charge and
start posting in just a few minutes.
Blogger.com (owned by search
giant, Google) will even host your blog on their servers.
Typepad.com, which charges as little as $4.95
per month, is also an excellent hosted service offering
additional features that enable you to quickly get your own
blog up and running.
The alternative is stand-alone
blogging software installed on your own website.
A very popular solution is
Moveable Type, which provides a very versatile and
powerful suite of tools for creating a full-featured blog to
rival that of any size company in the world.
Whichever blogging solution
you choose, if you plan to successfully conduct any form of
business online, understand that a blog must form an integral
part of your overall plan for customer communication and
interaction.
Jim Edwards is a syndicated
newspaper columnist and the co-author of
Turn Words Into Traffic, an amazing new eBook that
will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive
thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate
links. This simple
traffic machine brings thousands of NEW visitors to your
website for weeks, even months, without spending a dime on
advertising! Jim is also co-author of the popular
eBook Secrets Exposed and
How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook... in as Little as 7
Days!
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