Setting up a blog is generally a matter of following some online steps. The first thing any blogger (business or personal) needs to do is to find a blogging host. This could be a stand alone like Zanga or Blogger or a part of a social media site like MySpace or FaceBook.
You will need to register with a typical user name and password. From this point on you will need to pay attention to the instructions the blog site provides.
In most cases you can upload photos and most blog sites will also allow you to place audio and video in your blog. Most of the time this is placed as embedded link. This means that the link to the audio video or picture is placed on the blog from a secondary hosting source.
Unless you pay for blog space the blogging company will generally place a limit on the amount of space you can use to host files on their site. This is why the blogging site will not host most audio and video. Most bloggers will use video sites like YouTube to present any video clips they might want.
Photos can be stored at a site like Photobucket and then placed with an embedded link so the photo will show up on the site.
You will also be allowed to manage friends, comments and posts from your main page. Your profile can be edited or modified to include new achievements or events and the color scheme of your blog can also be adapted to express your personal taste.
Many blogging sites make Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds available as well to allow others to be advised when you post new material on your blog.
Many existing websites will have a page that is linked to the blog or frame the blog so site visitors can view their blog entries directly from the primary website. This can be important especially if the primary site is also a business website.
Blogging is just one of several marketing tools that can be integrated directly into an existing website design.
Most blogging sites will allow you to remove old blogs and edit existing ones whenever you need to.
In most cases the only individuals who can post comments are those who have registered with the blogging site. This is done for the protection of the company as well as the blogger. If a threat or malicious comment is made in response to your blog the blogging company can contact the poster or work with authorities if needed to find the person who made the comment. If no registration was required for blog comments then anyone could post their thoughts in your blog no matter how potentially harmful or threatening.
The next step is to actually post a blog entry. These can be general stream of consciousness thoughts or they could be more direct and informational.
Expect blog visits to be slow at first. When you develop several you will find visitation will increase and there will also be the expectation that you can and will provide new material to view on a regular basis.
Blogging can be a great way to add a personal touch to a personal or business website and can help customers and friends capture a sense of your humanity.
How To Use Your Blog to Market Your Business
Have you just started blogging? Or have you been blogging for a while? As you may already know, a blog is an excellent tool to let the world know about your business or your product, to connect with potential customers and promote your expertise. But how can you maximize your blog’s impact? Here are five tips to do just that:
- Blog Consistently. Many business owners get excited about blogging, post 3-6 times, and then promptly forget about the blog. I have seen many blogs that were started a year or two ago, have a grand total of five posts, and haven’t been updated since sometime last year.
To get the desired effect (search engine and human traffic), you need to update your blog on a regular basis. Search engines love new content and keep coming back to index it. Potential customers also like new content; it’s what keeps them coming back to read your blog.
- Use Your Blog For Branding. Your blog is an extension of your business, so make your blog have a look and feel that mirrors that of your business web site.
If your blog is hosted on the same domain as your web site, you should match the look and feel of your web site exactly. This will be more difficult to achieve if a third party provider hosts your blog. However, you should still aim to present the same brand image.
- Use Search Engine Optimization To Optimize Each Blog Post. The purpose of your blog is to get people who are in your target market to read your posts and enter your sphere of influence. Traffic from search engines does not cost any money, and it is a great way to get potential customers to your blog.
Treat each one of your blog posts as a separate file to be optimized for search engines. Use a keyword research tool to find phrases that are related to the main subject of the post, and weave them into the content of the post.
- Have A Special Offer On Your Blog. Do you offer a free special report? Do you offer a mini course as a bonus for new newsletter subscribers? Add the offer to your blog. This will transform people from casual surfers who just happened to find your blog to newsletter subscribers.
- Share Information About Your Events, Products and Seminars. You might think that everyone has already heard about your upcoming teleclass on life and work balance or your e-book about achieving financial success. Not so! The person reading your blog might be hearing about you for the very first time, so they have no idea about your teleseminars or products unless you specifically tell them.
Avoid overselling, as it will dramatically reduce the number of your blog readers. Do, however, let your blog readers know about your seminars and products. If you don’t tell them, nobody will.
A blog is an excellent tool to generate additional web site traffic, get new newsletter subscribers and sell more products. Use your blog to introduce potential customers to your business.
4 Key Ways To Keep Visitors Coming To Your Blog Site!
Blogging is a perfect way for people to share their thoughts with others. When people blog, it means they keep an updated online journal or diary. Weblog and blog are the same things. Companies might also blog to help increase the amount of business on their web sites. For many bloggers, increasing traffic to their blogs is not the only goal. Most people that blog want to keep their visitors coming back for more. The following are four ways to keep visitors coming to your blog site.
Blogging is a relatively new phenomenon. Some blog writes choose to keep their blogs personal and do not share their thoughts with others. These are more like online diaries. Other wants to share with everyone what he or she has to say. Blogging is a big business and many websites offer free blog hosting. In addition, many companies choose blogging as an inexpensive way to advertise their products or services. Blogging on the Internet is often much cheaper than maintaining a web site and is usually more interesting for readers and clients.
Update your blog: The easiest way to keep visitors coming back to your blog site is to update your blog on a regular basis. Readers will stay loyal to blogs that are updated daily. Some blog writers even updated several times a day. Readers will tend to loose interest in your writing if they have to wait several days for new material. Be loyal to your readers and your readers will be loyal to your blog. Also, there are literally thousands of blogs available on the Internet. If your blog is not updated on a regular basis, you will loose your readers to another blog site. Another fun way to update your blog and keep your readers interested in your site is to include something fun for your readers to enjoy. That could be as simple as a joke or maybe a link to a humorous story you have found on the Internet. You might also try including a trivia game or polls for your readers to enjoy on a regular basis.
Participate in web communities: Participating in web communities or discussion forums and mentioning your blog whenever possible will help keep readers coming back to your site. In addition, you can gain new readers when doing this. You can also be loyal to the blogs of other writers and ask them to visit your site. Leave nice comments about their site and invite them to your site. If you have mutual interests and the same type of readers, you can even share your blog links on your site. This helps everyone. Your reader will appreciate interesting reading while you benefit from readers from the other site.
Understand who reads your blogs: Another great way to keep blog readers coming back for more is to understand who reads your blog and write content that is directed towards them. This does not mean that you have to write on only one particular subject, though. If you are a stay at home mom and write about your life at home with the kids, your loyal readers may not appreciate it if you write about cutting edge topics or use a lot of foul language in your writing. If you generally write humor, do not bog your readers down with sorrowful woes and tales. Your readers will be interested in the things that attracted them to your site in the first place. That is usually what you are more interested in writing about. You can gain a better understanding of your readers interested by including places for comments and encouraging your readers to contact you by email.
Include keywords: You can gain readership and help keep your current readers by including certain keywords in your blog. If you have entered your blog on a search engine, these keywords that point to your blog will come up after a search. This is a great way to get readers interested in your blog. This is also a good way for companies to increase the traffic to their blog.
Blogging is the new way to keep a diary or journal online. Blogging is increasingly popular for companies as well. If you want to make your blog stand out against the thousands of other blogs, keep your readers interested and coming back for more everyday by updating your writing, participate in online communities, understand your readers and include keywords.