Blogging! This word is a phenomenon by itself. It has conquered the landscape of the internet. It has actually matured to the extent that I am sure you are aware of its marketing power. Blogs are being driven to its present status through the application of effective and proven systems.

You may have seen many strategies for blogging. You may also observed many techniques and tools already tried and tested and have proven to work. This is testimony to the marketing power of blogs. You can appreciate the effectiveness of traffic strategies to rewarding writing techniques, and from promotional tools to strategies on how best you can generate profit through your blog.

Strategies used will depend on the blog model chosen. The blog can be used in three ways: (a) to promote your online business (b) to promote your offline business and (c) acting as a stand-alone blog to generate its very own income. You cannot help but appreciate that blogs have the marketing power to support the strategies employed. The resultant effects are tremendous.

What’s in the marketing power of blogs? Let’s find out.

(1) If your blog is purely for business, you can give yourself a pat on your back, reason being a blog differs in many ways from normal web sites that you can find on the internet. Blogs are normally updated quite regularly. They are rather informal and more personalized. Blogs allow and encourage discussions that will lead to generation of relationships and development of communities.

(2) Content is the keyword for blogs. It is the selling mechanism for your product or service through your blog. Relevant, constantly updated, and quality content gives you the advantage in the eyes of search engines. Google loves it! You will be able to drive more traffic to your blog and website.

(3) Blogs provide the necessary marketing power for you to create buzz for your new products or services. Information about up-and-coming products or services that you will be offering can be released through your blog, even before actual launch. You can thus actually generate prior anticipation from your target audience. This will achieve best results with proper timing.

(4) By means of your blog, you can draw in more readers by inviting them to subscribe to free information that you are offering. You can create members-only area where readers can access to the entire archives. If your product is an e-book, you may consider offering free access to a blog that contains valuable and bonus information when you are selling your product. The blog allows you to create password-protected content and perhaps levy a small fee for access.

(5) The audience for a blog is normally specific and targeted. As such, the blog is a great place to post varying content such as photography tips, product benefits and reviews, and video games, just to name a few. You will be able to create a community around your blog by making use of the comments feature. If there is sale, you can find a community of bargain hunters flocking to the blog every morning. If you can get feedback, you will be able to publicize future versions of video games even before being placed into production.

(6) Customers do pose questions with regards to your products or services. Blogs provide this fantastic opportunity for making replies to common questions that you have received through emails. You can provide tips, support and advice, all of which are important to good customer service through your blog. Good and lasting impressions will retain existing customers. They will attract potential ones if you will only walk the extra mile to keep them delighted.

(7) Blogs help you to personalize your business.You can make your customers feel the warmth and comfort talking with you and buying from you. The style in a blog is basically informal. This encourages interactive dialogue with your target audience. You talk with silent authority but with stamped personality. This reinstates the marketing power of blogs.

(8) When you are offering relevant and quality content in your blog to your target audience, the chances of boosting your personal credibility are extremely high. With the kind of knowledge revealed through your content, you will build for yourself a reputation as an expert in your industry. What better way to gain credibility and reputation than through your own blog, one that you are proud of.

Blogs indeed are magnets that will attract traffic through the search engines. With quality and expert content, interactive communication, and personalized service that blogs offer, you will expect to experience the increase in your traffic and sales. All these are attributed indeed to the marketing power of blogs.

Blogging, what is it? You’ve heard talk about blogging but are one of those people who don’t quite understand what it is? That’s all right, as we’ll go over what a blog is, the history of blogs, what they are used for and why they are important to your online business.

What is a blog
A blog is essentially like a journal where people can post their thoughts and have them read and commented on by anyone.

What is a blogger
A blogger is someone who creates a blog and posts on it.

Brief history of blogs
Weblogs, simply known as blogs now, haven’t been around for that long. The roots of the blog can be traced back to 1994 when people kept online journals (diaries) in which they wrote about things in their life.

Our current blog has been around for an even shorter period of time. In 1998, Open Diary created a site in which its users could post blogs that had the ability to be commented on by other people.

The popular free blogging site called Blogger was created in 1999 by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. Blogger was later purchased by Google in 2003.

Despite the fact that blog sites have been in existence since 1998, they have only been popular for 5 or 6 years. In 2001, how-to-blog manuals were published and the phenomenon has only taken off since that point.

What are blogs used for?
In the very beginning, blogs were usually used to talk about a person’s life. People would make blog posts about things happening in their life, thus using the blog as a public journal.

Over time, the use of the blog evolved. People began using the blog to post their opinions about everything from politics to religion to sports to music, among other things.

Nowadays, blogs are even used to make money—one 20-year-old makes $5,000 from Google per month because he has Google Ads on his blog. Businesses have also begun to effectively use blogs for their own purposes.

Why are blogs important to your online business?
Millions of people from all over the world read blogs every day. Those who have a blog are given a lot of exposure—there is the potential for them to have millions of unique readers each day.

Can you imagine having a million people see your business’ name each day? That sounds pretty incredible, doesn’t it? Yet, that’s exactly what could happen if you create and maintain a successful, well-read blog. And that’s actually a pretty easy thing to do.

So how exactly can you use the blog to help your online business? Well, you can use it in a variety of ways.
You could:
• Use the blog to discuss things related to your field of business. For instance, if your business provides web hosting services, you could discuss things related to web hosting, thus showing potential customers how much of a guru you are.
• Let your employers have their own blogs to talk about your services/products. The more active blogs that reference your business, the more exposure you’ll get.
• Use your business blog to keep current customers updated on new services/products available.
• Post news about your business, as well as start rumors about potential happenings in your online business.
• Get feedback from current and potential customers on your products/services. For instance, you could make a post on a new product, giving details about it. Then your existing customers or potential customers could give their opinion on it.
• Promote your online business on your blog by making blog posts with information on what your business offers.
• Install AdSense on your blog and make extra revenue from ads clicked, thereby helping your business to be more profitable.

There are really a lot of possibilities to how you can use a blog to help your business, even more than those listed here. Blogs that are hosted on your site (by using a program like WordPress) can help your site achieve a higher ranking in search engines. This is because blogs are search engine friendly (Google is known to list them after only a few days, whereas it takes regular web sites weeks to appear on a search engine). Having a high search engine ranking is crucial to having a successful online business. Blogs help you to increase your ranking, which will increase your business.

The great thing about blogs is that they are easy to use and also very effective. Start a blog today and watch your business’ notoriety grow.

It is not possible to have a successful online business without website traffic. This means that implementing an effective traffic building strategy must be central to any overall internet marketing plan. In fact, without website traffic you might as well shut up shop. However, it can be expensive to drive targeted traffic to your website using paid strategies. It is therefore helpful to understand how to get interested visitors to your site without cost.

The first free method of driving traffic to your website is blogging. Most people these days know what blogging is and perhaps you already have one. However, to successfully drive traffic to your website from a blog you need to create an interesting, informative blog that can develop a readership. After all, if no one reads your blog you won’t be able to use it to drive traffic to your site.

With blogging, it is important to submit new posts regularly, preferably daily. It is also important that your blog articles are of a high quality and of particular interest to your targeted audience. One way to attract return visits is to regularly advertise special offers such as a free e-book, template or widget.

Blogs can be an important part of your traffic building strategy because they are very popular with search engines. Every time you add a new post, search engines crawl through your blog and index the page. If you update your blog daily, your chances of gaining a high position on the free search results page is dramatically increased. Blogger and Wordpress are two of the most popular blogging sites. Both allow you to establish a blog free of charge.

Online forums can also be used successfully to generate targeted traffic. By simply posting on forums and using a link to your website as your signature, you can receive the benefit of visitors to your website. You can find forums related to your niche by doing an internet search. Just make sure that the forum is active and has high traffic itself otherwise it might not be worth your time. Once you register on the forum, take some time to browse current posts to get sense of where people are coming from and what they are interested in. When you feel ready, start writing some posts yourself.

It is very important to understand the rules of forum posting. You are generally not allowed to promote your own business or products in forum posts. If you do this, your post will be removed and you will usually get a warning. In some cases, you will lose your forum membership. These rules can sometimes be applied in such an extreme way that even if someone on the forum asks for a recommendation, you still can’t give it. The best way to use the forum is to give generic but helpful information on any given forum topic. In forums, promoting your own business is considered spam even if it is relevant to the thread.

Both blogs and forums can be used to enhance your reputation or “expert” status. Building your credibility is an important aspect of attracting targeted website traffic. After all, if you invest in your own reputation in your particular niche, people will gain confidence in your advice and return to the blog or forum to see what else you have to say.

In your forum signature or blog “about me” page you can provide a link to specific web pages or affiliate programs. If you have taken the time to build credibility with your readers, they will click on your link to check out new articles or special offers. Blogs and online forums are a great addition to any traffic building strategy. They also have the added benefit of being free.

These two traffic building strategies are highly effective and you can begin to use them immediately.

First, let me answer the question “What is a Forum”?

A forum is a tool used to communicate and collaborate with others. Different types of forums include discussions, chat rooms, and messaging windows. Forum users interact with each other by exchanging tips and discussing topics related to a websites theme.

Forums save information posted on any given topic for others to see at any time…creating a discussion environment. Anything that gets posted can be read over and over again.

By participating in a forum discussion, you are reaching people from all over the world. Participants join together, get to know each other, build relationships, and create a community. When you contribute to a forum, and offer solutions to someone elses questions or problems, it allows you to gain credibility with other visitors. You are letting everyone know that you are an expert on the topic you are discussing…which in turn will make them more likely to buy from you (when the time comes)!

So, then, “What is a Blog”?

A blog is a collection of articles, ideas, news, facts or opinions that are posted on a site. They are usually fairly structured, and organized by category. Most are updated often, and controlled by the owner of the blog. “Blog” is actually a term coined from “Web log”.

The purpose of a blog is to communicate with others and provide content. You direct the content, but let your readers guide you. By providing compelling, well written content, and posting updated material often, you are positioning yourself as an expert on your chosen topic.
Readers of your blog can comment, but not in a discussion format as in a forum.

In summary, with both forums and blogs, you are able to post a comment and reply to other comments. You can leave comments that may or may not be moderated, and therefore may have to identify yourself – usually with a name and email address.

Let’s look at the differences between a forum and a blog side by side:

FORUMS

Main Purpose: Create a discussion on any topic by allowing comments on posts

Forums are created to promote discussion between many participants

Control of Content: Group control – decentralized…In most cases, all members have the ability to create new topics. Discussions can change direction, reflecting the group as a whole.

Unfocused – numerous contributors…creates user-generated topics.Forums will create a wider variety of content, and pull traffic on topics or phrases you may not have thought of.

Intent: Group participation and collaboration.Saves group input and facilitates group decision making.

Message length: Numerous short messages

Log in /Registration usually required.

Shows who’s online at a given time

BLOGS

Main Purpose: Content of the posting is the main intent, not the commenting

Blogs are mainly created for single user input

Control of Content: Individual – centralized…New topics are presented by the owner of the blog.

Focused – since blogs are written by a single author (or a small group of authors).Comments are generally directed to the primary author, not other readers.

Intent: Personal accounts, news, and opinions. Trusted individuals provide their accounts of information.

Message length: Mostly longer messages

Log in /Registration not required

Doesn’t show who’s online

Hopefully this comparison will clear up the distinctions between forums and blogs for you. Both are effective tools of communication, so use both to increase your presence on the internet, and promote your expertise.

To Your Success!

Lynn McArthur

Business Growth Specialist

Blog is basically an online diary which usually comes in the form of a website. Users can add postings from time to time. Blogs include photos, text etc. Blogs are in different templates, designs, background colors. You can create your own blog. There are websites like blogger.com which is owned by Google. It allows you to choose blog address and control your blog and post messages on to your bog. Other web users can subscribe to your blog and you can edit or control the comments. Blogs are in the form of personal diaries, new diaries, specific diaries some of them could be highly technical.

RSS (really simple syndication) is a style through which users can easily read your web feeds. With RSS Reader you can automatically download stories, news, log feeds to your desktop. For SEO, you can begin to really get your blog postings subscribed by creating information and interesting blogs. This will result in giving your information, links and site information out to the masses. Blogs are search engine friendly as they always contain the new content which is interlinked. Some successful blogs even come in the top of search engines on certain common searched keywords or terms with less effort as compared to websites. You can promote a site with a blog in an inexpensive way. Blogs are easy to maintain and update. It can be maintained by even those who do not have initial knowledge about creating a webpage. Anybody can run a blog as it’s easy to update, edit text, add or remove links from pages.
From SEO point of view blogs are straightforward, undemanding, and cost effective way for achieving search engine ranking, online feedback and product or service sales.
Blogs encourage repeat visits because they provide the fresh content. You can include links in blogs to make it popular from SEO point of view. You can feed blogs into other people RSS Feeders. In this way your blog becomes syndicated (subscribed to). Hundreds of people can subscribe to receive your blog when you publicize the URL of your blog feed of a well written and interesting blog. Thus people receive the blog postings written by you by clicking on the links into your website. In past it was trend of making personal homepages. But nowadays people are making their own personal blogs. Some blog interpret people personal thoughts, activities, and reactions. Some are in the form of a family news letter and some promote as their personal hobbies. Other use is blog helps in building online communities of people with similar interests.
Blogs are also used as a news source in the form of online news papers. The major news agencies now have online news blogs of their own. Webmasters helps in providing webmasters adding content to their sites. Blog becomes powerful source for SEO when it has keyword rich content and in imbedded links Thus Blogs provide quality search engine optimization. With the increase in the internet users there is increase in internet journals too. Most of these are in the form of blogs and now there are millions of blogs on the internet. And this figure is going to increase in the future. So the popularity of blogs is continuing to grow at a faster pace. The reason for this is that blogs are gateway for visitors of a site to communicate and leave feedback to the publisher of the website.

Posting on blogs is easy. Getting blog traffic is not. There are a lot of blogs out there and only so many blog readers to go around. If you are thinking about posting on blogs or if you are already posting on blogs but not getting the kind of blog traffic you want, there are a few things you can do to make your blogs more interesting than some of the other blogs you are competing with.

Research Prior to Posting on Blogs

Blogs that get a lot of blog traffic have one thing in common: they cover topics that people are interested in reading about. To make sure your topics will be of interest to the general public it is a good idea to research various topics before posting on blogs. You can perform general searches on the Internet to see what’s popular and what’s not. You can also read other blogs that are similar to yours. If they have high blog traffic and lots of comments, they are probably hitting on good topics.

Consider Your Tone before Posting on Blogs

Blogs are different than news stories. People read blogs because they want to hear opinions along with facts. And as crazy as it might sound, people want to hear YOUR thoughts. Don’t be afraid to state your case or add commentary when posting to blogs. Personal opinions, tone, and writing style all help to draw in regular blog traffic. So, consider these things carefully before posting on blogs. They will have a huge impact on your success.

You Can Get More Blog Traffic with Short Posts

Posting on blogs is slightly different than posting on other types of web pages. Blog readers like short posts–really short posts. Short blogs are fun and easy to read. Long blogs, on the other hand, look intimidating and time consuming. If you want people to actually read what you are posting on blogs or if you’d like to see repeat blog traffic, it is a good idea to present as much information as you can in a limited number of words. A good rule of thumb when posting on blogs is to keep each post under 250 words.

Think About Blog Traffic Posting On Blogs

Quality doesn’t always equal success when posting on blogs. There are lots of good blogs out there that don’t get a lot of blog traffic. The reason is because nobody knows they exist. You can avoid this pitfall by thinking about blog traffic before you begin posting on blogs. Things to consider specifically include keywords and keyword phrases. If you can use natural keyword placement in the blog’s title and throughout the body of the text, your posts stand a better chance of making it into search engine rankings and a better chance of drawing more blog traffic.

Always Think About Your Readers When Posting On Blogs

When posting on blogs nothing is more important than your blog traffic (a.k.a. your audience.) Some of the things readers like to see on blogs include: snappy headlines, bulleted or formatted lists, links, and information that is easy to scan.

Actually, blog online marketing is not all that hard if you know what you are doing. However, if this is your very first blog and you are wondering how to get readers or subscribers to it then you are in the right place.

Here are some great tips to use when trying to get your blog out there and get new readers. You learn workable tips and secrets of how to build successful blog and earn money with your blog.

1) The first key for your successful in blog online marketing is to update your blog frequently. We can not put enough emphasis on this tip. If you tell your readers that you are going to update your blog daily, then do it. For more results please login on to www.blog-and-ping.com. Your readers are what make your blog successful. You may not realize this in the beginning, and you will have few readers in the beginning as well, but you will eventually build a readership base and have people checking out your blog regularly.

2) You are going to want to be sure that all of your posts are formatted. Doing so will leave out any confusion for the search engines and you will have everything nice and neat and all organized. The label tags are there for a reason when you are dealing with blogs. So using them and not leaving them out is a great idea.

3) Having a Google account and submitting a sitemap is almost a must when you are blog online marketing. Doing so will allow Google to know how often you are updating your blog and they will automatically know of any changes that you have made to it as well. There is a certain way you have to do the sitemap for Google, and they can explain that to you. Just know this is an important step to blog online marketing.

4) Exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blogroll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favour.

5) Tracking is another part of blog marketing that is so very important. You want to be able to track your visitors and clickers to know where they are coming from. You want to be able to tell what keywords they searched on to find your blog and where they did their searching. Doing so will help take out all of the guess work when it comes to blog marketing. You will know what keywords are working, and which are not.

6) Allowing RSS feeds from your blog is also another great blog online marketing tool. You are going to find that when you allow RSS feeds, your blog is going to end up all over the internet with a link back to it and that is a good thing. You can also log on to www.your-own-blog.com. This is a wonderful way to get links to your blog with little or no effort. People that subscribe to your blog’s RSS feeds are able to then post your blog posts on their sites or blogs. This in return gives you a link on their site or page that they have you on.

7) Learn and apply SEO to your blogs. SEO is search engine optimization. You are going to find that if you want your blog to go anywhere, you need SEO, and you need to know how to use it to the advantage of your blog. Just like a website, a blog will be better off optimized.

Final thoughts, blog online marketing is only as hard as you make it. Use these powerful tips and get your blog out there and seen today.

www.blog-and-ping.com

www.profit-pulling-toolbars.com

Blog is basically an online diary which usually comes in the form of a website. Users can add postings from time to time. Blogs include photos, text etc. Blogs are in different templates, designs, background colors. You can create your own blog. There are websites like blogger.com which is owned by Google. It allows you to choose blog address and control your blog and post messages on to your bog. Other web users can subscribe to your blog and you can edit or control the comments. Blogs are in the form of personal diaries, new diaries, specific diaries some of them could be highly technical.

RSS Feeds

RSS (really simple syndication) is a style through which users can easily read your web feeds. With RSS Reader you can automatically download stories, news, blog feeds to your desktop. For SEO, you can begin to really get your blog postings subscribed by creating information and appealing blogs. This will result in giving your information, links and site information out to the masses.

Blogs are search engine friendly as they always contain the new content which is interlinked. Some successful blogs even come in the top of search engines on certain common searched keywords or terms with less effort as compared to websites. You can promote a site with a blog in an inexpensive way. For more resources visit at www.bloggers-guide-to-profit.com. Blogs are easy to keep and update. It can be maintained by even those who do not have knowledge about creating a webpage. Anybody can run a blog as it’s easy to update, edit text, add or remove links from pages. From SEO point of view blogs are simple and cost effective way for achieving search engine ranking, online feedback and product or service sales.
Blogs encourage repeat visits because they provide the fresh content. You can include links in blogs to make it popular from SEO point of view. You can feed blogs into other people RSS Feeders. In this way your blog becomes syndicated (subscribed to).

Use of blogs

Nowadays people are making their own personal blogs. Some blog interpret people personal thoughts, activities, and reactions. Some are in the form of a family news letter and some promote as their personal hobbies. Other use is blog helps in building online communities of people with similar interests. Blogs are also used as a news source in the form of online news papers. The big news agencies now have online news blogs of their own. Webmasters helps in providing webmasters adding content to their sites. Blog becomes powerful source for SEO when it has keyword rich content and in imbedded links Thus Blogs provide quality search engine optimization.

Future of blogs

with the increase in the internet users there is increase in internet journals too. Most of these are in the form of blogs and now there are millions of blogs on the internet. And this figure is going to increase in the future. So the popularity of blogs is ongoing to grow at a faster pace. The reason for this is that blogs are gateway for visitors of a site to communicate and leave feedback to the publisher of the website. Webmasters use blogs to get ideas feedbacks about the new products from the site visitors. This has made the blogs the most precious marketing and SEO tool and its importance is going to grow in the near future.

Blogs are a great way to share ideas and get indulged in discussions on different topics. One can write blogs on any topic ranging from technology and life to health and relationships. The process of blog writing involves owning a web space without any charge and writing on the topic that caters to your interest. These blogs then can be submitted to blog directories where the interested readers can get a chance to read your blogs. Readers comment upon the post that has been submitted and sharing their views regarding the topic being discussed make you recognizable on the web. The world of blogging has been greatly expanding and at times do lead bloggers to the way of earning fame by TV or newspaper interviews.

The popularity of blogs has also become the latest craze among the businesses with ecommerce websites. For more results go to www.building-blog-empire.com. Blogs are favorites among web crawlers as these blogs are regularly updated and help in gaining higher search engine ranking. Submission of blogs in blog directory helps in growing traffic as fellow bloggers are normally curious to check blogs of other bloggers and click on links of blogs at the blog directories to read them. More clicking on the blogs leads to blog marketing. Moreover, one can also search for blogs easily at any of the blog directory as there are search options available that save time and exhaustive searches. Blogs in these directories are categorized into different groups such as photo blogs, writing blogs, poetry blogs, technology blogs, motivating blogs and many others.

It is important to update a blog frequently so as to get good traffic or regular readership. This will ultimately lead the blog to be enlisted with search engines and might also become a good source of your additional income. You can also visit us at www.profit-pulling-toolbars.com. There are also RSS blog directory that allows readers who like your blog to subscribe with your blog feed and receive an update whenever a new post has been posted at your blog. RSS blog directory are therefore a great way of informing the interested readers of the blog about the new post and that their comments are keenly awaited, thereby increasing the traffic at the blog.

Making a blog and its submission to a blog directory can easily be carried out, which is another factor that has accounted for the popularity of blogs these days.

Ask this question of any SEO expert and they will tell you “fresh content” and “backlinks”, other than Google took over Blogger. The last one is the favorite as no one can argue with that.

Search engines like fresh content as it is valuable for their users, and links show that other sites or blogs (and not just your own website) think that the information on your website is useful to their readers.

A blog can be an individual’s viewpoint, a life journal, a school girl’s diary, a poet’s space, an artist’s expression, or just about sharing your moments with family and friends. One can share information, pictures and even videos with no previous knowledge of designing and programming.

Companies use blogs to promote their latest products, introduce new services, announce upcoming events, share event pictures and videos, announce special offers/discounts, run opinion polls, introduce new team members, special announcements, build loyalty, and invite their customers to leave comments and give testimonials.

Bloggers believe that blogs are being taken more seriously as information sources. One in five bloggers don’t think that newspapers will survive the next ten years. Half believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years.

Bloggers are most open to receiving marketing messages from other blogs. Even non-blog web content is more influential among this group than traditional media sources for brand information.

Home businesses and young entrepreneurs use blogs to increase awareness and attract traffic to their online business, new ventures, and daring expeditions into the unknown.

Professionals use blogs to brand themselves, create awareness and credibility, make money (yes that’s possible), and share their knowledge and experiences.

Housewives use blogs to share cooking tips and recipes, their children’s growing moments, travel log of the last trip, and shopping expeditions.

We SEO experts use blogs for achieving higher rankings for specific keywords. Unbelievable, and yet in many instances my blog link appears higher on search engines results page than pages that I optimize personally for the same keyword.

Getting started with blogging is relatively easy. You can sign up with blogger.com or other such blogging platforms.

If you don’t own a domain name for your blog, no worries, you can start with a free subdomain with Blogger.

Lets look into some interesting statistics on blogs.

The numbers vary but agree that blogs are here to stay!

comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)
- Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
- Facebook: 41.0 million | MySpace 75.1 million
- Total internet audience 188.9 million

eMarketer (May 2008)
- 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
- 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)

Universal McCann (March 2008)
- 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US
- 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US
- 77% of active Internet users read blogs

Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 Report is now available. For a detailed report go to technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

The report states that Brands make up a major part of bloggers’ online conversations. More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate. Even day-to-day experiences with customer care or in a retail store are fodder for blog posts. Companies are already reaching out to bloggers: one-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates. (ref Technorati 2008 Report)

But wait, that’s not all. The report also states that Blogs are an increasingly attractive platform for advertisers. The majority of bloggers we surveyed have advertising on their blogs. Marketers realize that bloggers are creating high quality content and attracting growing, loyal audiences. So there is potential for profit from blogging. (ref Technorati 2008 Report)

Well you are convinced, and you start writing periodically, uploading photographs and videos and have shared your blog link with many friends, but a few months down a nagging worry start to hit you (this is for those who don’t track their readers using tracking software’s like Google Analytics) that you are writing for “you” alone and your mum who thinks “my son is the best”.

While there is nothing wrong with writing, just for the pleasure of writing, I am sure you all want to reach out and touch someone else with all your hard work. The real challenge is to get your target audience to read your blog whether its family, friends, colleagues, or readers around the world who would be interested in what you are writing about.

Trust me even friends will betray you if what you write does not make them want to come back, so pay close attention to the questions below and answer them as honestly as you can.

-What would make your blog special to your audience?
-Why would they want to bookmark your blog?
-Why would they want to link to it and tell others?
-What is my ultimate goal for this blog?

While the first 3 questions require you to dig down deep inside your minds and hearts, the last question is most critical. What do you ultimately want out all the hard work, late nights and coffee cups invested into your blog?

Well, whether your blog is for the purpose of sharing knowledge, gaining credibility, increasing visibility and rankings, building customer loyalty, sharing information, making money, or assisting our fellow men in the journey of life, the bottom line remains search engines love blogs, and so should you.

So keep writing!

http://www.seo-optimization-experts.com/seoblog.html