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#1
11-26-2009, 07:09 AM
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Are Blogs Worth Your Time?
Everywhere you turn these days, business websites seem to be adding blogs to their promotional fare. Whether these blogs are quirky notes from people on the staff or written by a professional copywriter,
there is a debate in the market as to whether or not these blogs are even worth your time. When done well, blogs can offer a new insight into a business' dealings, but if not done correctly, they can often harm the image the business is striving to create. What Kind of Business are You? Simply throwing a blog up on your business website or as a link on your website and waiting to see how popular it is isn't the best first step in having a business site blog. You need to begin by determining the audience you are addressing with your business. Are they even blog readers? Most people are fairly aware of blogs and their place on the internet, but in relation to your business, do they even make sense? If your typical customers and site visitors are coming for new products or to make return purchases, chances are pretty good that a blog isn't going to matter to them. When your site is setup to give your visitors new information, blogs might be a good way to package this information in a pleasing way. Try to think about other websites that are in the same market as you. Do they have blogs? Do these blogs get a lot of comments? If so, that can mean that people are reading them enough to comment on the content – and that kind of interaction may be worth your time. Are You Making the Right Impression? The trick with blogs is that they can go from classy to classless in a matter of sentences. You need to create a blog that is focused in its subject matter and written by a person who understands what your business is about and who your customers are. Again, looking at other blogs will give you a better idea of how to do this. If you're looking to draw in the serious customer, you might want to keep your blog content as factual information about the products you sell as well as the related issues that go along with those products. For example, if you sell refrigerators, you might want to create a blog about refrigerator repairs or about dealing with food spoilage. Always, always, always try to remember what your reader is thinking when they read your blog. While you might enjoy the content, in the end, it's about what your reader thinks. 
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#2
11-26-2009, 07:10 AM
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How to Start a Successful Blog
If you've determined that a blog is the right choice for you, you might want to start by making a list of the topics that you want to cover in this blog as well as decide on the frequency of the blog itself. Is it going to be a daily thing or perhaps just a weekly installment? You will also want to find a writer for this blog and watch the responses and visits that you get to this blog each day. This will give you a sense of whether or not you're on the right track. Here's a great tip: Try to include links within your blog entries to further increase the popularity of your website itself. You can always ask the sites if you can link to them, but most sites will be happy that you did. When you want to create a blog, you need to keep three things in mind: focus, tone, and interaction. Take time each day to read the comments in the blog so that you can address any visitors' concerns. This will make your site all the more popular and visited.
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