Why Do We Need to Blog?

For most people it is hard to understand why it is necessary to blog. It seems like a waste of time, especially if you feel that you have nothing to blog about. It helps to think of blogging as an interactive extension of your website. It is the kind of marketing that you can do yourself. It takes a little effort and if you know what you are doing, then targeted leads should start coming your way.

Lets go over the benefits and strategies that make blogging an important asset to your online marketing efforts.

Content is King

This is the most important concept to master on the internet because people are searching for answers. You need to position yourself as the answer-giver of your industry. It’s not hard to find things to write about. All you have to do is observe and report. You can find many opportunities by looking at trade magazines, newspapers, tv and of course other blogs.

Put yourself in the position of a prospective customer. What questions would they have that you could answer. Those make excellent topics to write about.

Most websites these days lose traffic because they don’t incorporate the right keywords and the content gets stale. Move yourself to the conversation. This means we have to go beyond a list of products and services. Instead, talk about the benefits of your products and services.

Engage Your Prospects

Blogging is a two way street. However, many beginners create blog posts that are too lengthy and do not illicit a response from the reader. The comment feature on blogs is very important. This is the place where your readers can respond to you. The way you get your readers to respond is by asking them what they think. Or make a statement that will cause someone to comment like “Unions are destroying the job market.” If it’s a hot enough topic you will get people who are in agreement with you and those who are not.

Many members on the Web Owners Club use Wordpress which is not only a popular blog platform, but also a great website editor because you can add pages. When it comes to blogging it is important to use the “Read More” link just like you did here. There reason why is because it allows you to display many blog titles with teaser text. When the user click on the “Read More” link they go to a page that contains only that post. At the bottom of that post is the opportunity to comment.

Many beginners write their posts but lose their readers because they didn’t know or forgot to use the “Read More” link. Use the “Read More” link to force your users to go to each post individually where that comment form will be waiting for them.

Shout it Out

Of course you are probably wondering still why you should blog if no one is visiting your web site. Blogging represents the ability to self-publish on line. Creating a blog post is the easiest type of content creation there is. It could be video or a PDF as well. Anything new that you create or upload on to your site is grounds for a “Shout Out”. What I mean is, once you create some new content go out and tell the world that you have something new.

Use your email and invite people that you know to come visit your site with the new thing. If you have an account with Constant Contact, this would be a great opportunity to blast to hundreds or thousands of emails. Or hook on to someone else’s list like a newsletter. They are always in the need for value-added content. It could be yours.

Use Social media like Facebook, Twitter and Linked In, just to name a few, as forums where you can announce that you have something new.

Other Blogs

One of the most under-used concepts in blogging is the one-way-link. You get these simply by visiting another blog and commenting on one of their posts. Most blogs are moderated which means that your comment will be either denied or approved to be displayed. So, if you want a link back to your site you need to make a genuine comment so that it gets approved. The process of making a comment includes giving your name and your website address. Your name becomes the link text to the website address you gave. If your comment is provocative enough, other readers will click your name to find out more about you.