Blog Tacticts

Blogging is very popular these days for a lot of different reasons. It’s fun to be able to write about something, or share information with people from all over the world. A blog on a topic that has a large number of interested readers has the potential to generate some extra income for you (If you know how to monetize these visitors). A very popular method for generating some money from your blog is to use Google Adsense.

Use Adsense Ads On Your Blog

One of the most popular methods for making some extra income from your blog is to put “adsense” on it. Adsense is Google’s contextual advertising system, which allows you to position ads on your blog which are relevant to the content of your blog. When a visitor to your blog clicks on one of these adsense ads you get a portion of the income generated.

The amount you receive will depend on the keywords that you use on your blog, which Google uses to ensure that the adsense ad matches the blog’s content.

You first need to sign up for an adsense account ,which is free. Enter “set up an adsense account” into your favourite search engine, and follow the simple instructions for creating an account. It is a good idea to have your blog already up and running, with some good content in place, before signing up to Google’s adsense program.

Blend Them In

Once you have signed up, you will recieve your adsense account. This account will allow you to login, and you can then generate an adsense ad. When you generate the adsense ad, you choose the ad format (i.e. whether the ad will be a ‘header’ at the top of your blog, or a ‘footer’ at the bottom, or a ’side-bar’ at the edge of your blog). Next you have to choose how your ad will look. Your adsense account gives you a lot of options for choosing the colour of the text, the background colour etc.Once you have decided on the format of your ad, you then save this, and Google will give you an adsense block of html code that you then add to your blog.It is highly recommended to try and match the text and colours you select in the adsense ad, to blend in with the ‘look and feel’ of your blog. The reason for this is you don’t want your adsense ads on your blog to look like ads – if you spend some time choosing the colour and format of your adsense blocks you should be able to blend them into your blog, making them look less like ads, and increasing the likelihood of your readers clicking on them.

Adsense And Blogger

The method that you use for adding the adsense ads to your blog will depend on the type of blog you have:

If you are using Blogger for your blog, then adding the adsense blocks to your blog is super simple.

You just login to your blogger account, and click on the ‘add a page element’ link, where you want your adsense ad to be located. Next a window will be displayed ‘choose a new page element’ – you simply select the ‘Adsense’ option and then click on the ‘add to blog’ button. You then choose the size and formatting for your adsense ad, and click on ’save changes’.

You should now see a adsense page element on your blog. There is a limit to the type and number of adsense ads you can add to a blog (make sure you read the Adsense terms of service, to ensure that you do not exceed this limit)

Adsense And Wordpress

If you are using Wordpress for your blog, then there are a number of different ways to add the adsense code. You can download a free adsense plugin, that allows you to add the adsense ad to your blog.Alternatively, just use this simple method:Log into your Google adsense account and generate the adsense ad (ensure you match the ad text and colours, so it will blend in with your blog). After you have done this your adsense account will generate the html code for the ad (which you will need to insert into your Wordpress blog).To add this code to your Wordpress blog:

You should now be able to see ads from Google appearing in the adsense block where you added the code (i.e. the header, footer or sidebar)

Wait For Acceptance

Although adsense ads will start appearing on your blog, these will initially be public service ads that do not pay any revenue when clicked. You have to wait for your Google adsense application to be approved before Google will start serving up contextual ads in the adsense blocks on your blog, which will generate revenue for you when clicked on. This is why it is important to have set up your blog and have some good content in place before applying for a Google adsense account.

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Blog Carnivals help bloggers recognize each others efforts, organize important topics, and promote conversation on the blogosphere. They also help solve that isolation problem by creating meta posts that contain links to lots of other bloggers’ posts, thus providing them with much-needed exposure. Carnivals help you make money on the internet although there are many ways that blog owners can make money online, especially when they are solely focusing on their own site. The carnivals help in creation of this requisite value and at the same time increases traffic to the website. Blog Carnivals are basically roundups of blog posts hosted at a different blog each week and are something that has slowly become popular amongst those in the blogging world because it is both beneficial to the blogger and the host of the Carnival. The Carnivals have become a great help to the blogging community and are great resources for readers and can really help you ATTRACT some new readers. It is one of the easiest ways you can utilize your own content to drive traffic to your blog, increase your back links and make more money blogging. Carnivals are collections of blog posts submitted by bloggers to one designated blog.Blog Carnivals have recently become even more popular amongst bloggers in the blogging world because they are wonderful resources for readers and they can find a lot of new sites in one spot.The definition of a Blog Carnival is when somebody takes a given blog post or topic and compiles all posts they find about that topic into one post called a Carnival. This is not only one of the fastest and least difficult ways to get indexed in Google, Yahoo & MSN but it is also a massive source of income that is just waiting for you to pick up your share. Blogs have evolved from merely being social outlets in cyberspace into profitable channels which could provide for the user several income streams to supplement his current earnings, or perhaps even surpass the same. Bloggers are hard at work all over the blogosphere, creating their posts, but what fun is it to write if no one ever comes by to read what you’ve written. Hence, blog Carnivals help solve that isolation problem by creating meta posts that contain links to lots of other bloggers’ posts, thus providing them with much-needed exposure.Blog posts are the life line of the web site and their quality alone will determine if online visitors read and enjoy what you have to offer or if they will be disappointed in what you have provided to them and never come back again. Therefore, blog sites must have a unique design in order to compete with the other blogs that exist in the online world. Blogware is becoming a standard content management system these days while blogs are increasingly becoming a useful tool to communicate with online viewers. Blog marketing is the latest innovative marketing strategy on the internet and is a big tool when it comes to advertising and communicating with internet users. In and of itself blogging is an efficient connecting and interacting tool, which makes extensive use of different internet attributes. Making money on the internet is not an easy task, and requires that you do many things in order to be competitive with other blog owners while sustaining continued growth throughout the future. Those who participate in Carnivals and hold their own blog Carnivals attain huge success as this marketing venue provides a way for you to market your blog extremely well.

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There are many bloggers earning full-time income from their blogs, some in the thousands of dollars per month! You can learn how they do it by researching their techniques.. Blog posts are displayed in reverse chronological order with the latest blog post displaying first. For more recourses www.your-own-blog.comBlogs can be written from a personal perspective such as what you do on a daily basis. Many popular blogs are written like a magazine informing readers of the latest trends. There is a blog for almost any topic you can imagine as well as a variety of authors. You can find blogs written by stay-at-home moms to blogs maintained by large corporations.

Benefits of blogging

There are several benefits of blogging, one of the most popular being monetary benefits. Many personal bloggers find it is very therapeutic while others blog specifically to earn income. If you are the latter, there are several ways to earn income from blogging. It isn’t as easy as it seems or else everyone would be doing it, however, with a little guidance everyone has the opportunity to earn a study income from blogging.

Blogs are being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists. Blogs have increased popularity over these past months.

You can have a blog up and running with in minutes thanks to free blogging services such as Word press and Blogger. It is wise to purchase your own domain name and host your blog with a web hosting provider. This way you will have full control over your blog and aren’t under the restrictions of the free services. However, if you are just starting out, the free blogging services will work just fine until you learn the ropes. You can still earn income with those types of blogs until you can set-up a blog on your own. For more details go on for more details visit to www.blogers-guide-to-profit.com Quick blogging tips.

It is fine to have a personal blog where you write about your own personal experiences. In order to earn a decent income, you should definitely look into running multiple blogs on various topics. It is difficult to earn income from a personal blog unless you’re writing and topics are really compelling.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

About The Author

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 As noted earlier, try to set-up your own blog with a web hosting provider as well as using your own domain name.

Don’t leave money on the table

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Blogging is one of the ways to earn money online. Most people love to learn the best way to blog and be able to earn cash from it. Blogs are an extraordinary method to make money on the internet, mainly when you are starting out as a newbie. It requires no technical experience and they are simply to receive web traffic unlike most usual websites. When you discover the best ways to blog you are going to make lot cash from it, same as any blog you build. In order to get the best out of it all you need to perform a thorough research to conclude on the topic you wish to blog about.Promoters refer to it as “finding a niche”. A niche is simply the subject of your blog. It may be about reviews, products like TV, iPod, software, fishing, sports, hunting etc. These are some of the category you are likely to make cash from. Stuffs that will interest people, meaning they are going to read it and like it, and also come back or even subscribe to your upcoming posts. Funny stuffs or crazy stuffs like how funny your cat is or how crazy your brother is are cool, even though people are going to read it but it isn’t gonna make you lots of money. The reason is because this category of readers is not searching for anything to buy.What you require is to learn to blog in a method which will bring audience searching for the niche of your blog and are ready to pay for it. When you’ve come up with the niche of your choice, then you can start with the creation of your blog.Below are three preferences you can choice from when thinking of the kind of blog you need.-    Option of obtaining a free blog like blogger or Wordpress-    Option of creating your own blog from scratch-    Option of purchasing an already made blog or request somebody to create it for youIt is right that free is cool in some instance. The bad side of a free blog is that you can’t use what you didn’t pay for. You won’t have many options like: ability to edit your blog to your own taste. That means you can’t make your blog appear the way you need it, and it won’t be very professional.If you have no money for a paid blog, you can start off with a free one. Use free blog like blogger.com. Simply purchase a domain, find a hosting company that gives you a service like Fantastico. Fantastico is a set of programs which comes with varieties of products, with it you can set up your own blog on your web server using just a few clicks, search for a template, edit it to your taste (that is you add your kind of colors, graphics and revenue programs to earn money with it and then begin blogging. You also have the option of purchasing a blog which has already been created and made available for sale.When your blog is ready, there are some best options which you can use to earn cash using it.-    AdSense-    Affiliate programsAdSense is simply a program own by Google which displays matching ads on your blog based on the keywords you use on your blog. You earn money on any click on the ads placed by Google on your blog and also for impressions.Affiliate programs are a way of selling the products of others and when you make a sale you get paid. Assuming you created a blog about fishing, you may find some affiliate programs related products which pertain to fishing. Place it on your blog and wait for sales. Every week try to write a small article about fishing related stuffs to make your blog content fresh and unique.

Blogging to the Bank is a site that unveils techniques which you can use to earn a lot of money from blogging. You can earn up to a thousand buck from applying the secrets offered by them. You can find more about it by visiting http://modospot.com/review/bloggingtothebank.html

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Blogging can be a fun activity and it can also be profitable. However, blogging for profit requires quite a different strategy compared to blogging for fun. If you are blogging for profit or plan to do so, then here are 3 simple but essential steps you need to do to succeed in making money from your blog.

1. Set Up Your Own Blog Site

If you are blogging for profit, you must have your own blog site, and not rely on a free blog from free blogging sites like blogger.com, blogspot.com, myspace.com, etc. The reasons you need your own site are:

(a) it projects a more professional and serious image of your blogging,

(b) you can add a lot more useful and essential plugins to give functionality and efficiency to your site, and

(c) you have full control and ownership over your work.

My personal preference for a blogging platform is WordPress as it is easy to set up, easily modifiable and has almost limitless themes and plugins to make your blog more aesthetic, functional and almost 100% automated. Some plugins are essential tools to make your blog site more visible and profitable.

Choose a specific niche to blog, preferably one that you are passionate about. Only then will you have the energy, enthusiasm and knowledge to blog regularly.

Blogging for profit also means that you’ll need to discretely add advertisements like Google AdSense or ClickBank to your site, and to promote some great and related products through your blog postings from time to time.

2. Blog Regularly

Blogging is fun and is often addictive. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to do it as often as possible.

The key to a profitable blog is consistency in your posting. Set a daily schedule of 1 to 2 hours to post in your blog. Post sensibly and make sure that your postings contain information that is useful for your readers.

Do not post simply for the sake of posting. It is not necessary to have a long post. Sometimes, several one or two paragraph postings can be more beneficial and welcomed than a single long post.

3. Publicize Your Blog

Profitable blogging depends on 2 important factors. The first is the quality of your blog, The second is how extensive you can reach out to the people out there.

So, once your blog site is up and running, do not feel shy to promote it to your friends and colleagues. Publicizing and marketing your blog site is an essential part to blogging profitably. Include your blog site URL in your name cards and hand them out liberally to friends, colleagues and acquaintances, even to strangers and people you are meeting for the first time.

If you are passionate enough in your subject matter, they will see and understand your eagerness in sharing your passion with them.

You also need to expose your blog site to as many people as possible online. You can do that through various methods, such as advertising, using social networks, and collecting a following for your blog via newsletters sign ups and RSS. There are many WordPress plugins that helps to link your postings from your site to other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitters.

If you do all these 3 steps right, and you blog regularly and consistently, I can assure you that you’ll be making money from your blog within 6 months or at most a year.

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In learning how to blog effectively you will need to pay particular attention to the 4 pillars upon which your blog is built. These pillars will determine the direction, identity and the popularity of your blog.Let’s look at the 4 pillars upon which you’ll need to focus in order to establish a popular blog, boost your blog traffic and become the talk of your niche.1) Give Your Blog an IdentityEvery successful blog needs an identity in order to stand out from the other crowd. And that identity is YOU! Let your personality spill over onto your blog thru the tone or style of your posts. Let it be reflected in the layout if possible and applicable. By giving your blog a personality you’ll be making it easier for you and the readers to bond. This feeling of ‘connection’ will translate into reader loyalty. Whatever identity you choose for your blog needs to remain consistent2) Establish the Theme of Your BlogThis is why you’re blogging. It’s the subject, niche, or purpose for which you have chosen to blog. Once again the importance of remaining consistent can not be over stated here. To change or veer away from your original purpose or theme will confuse your readers. They were attracted to your site based upon the original theme you presented and or unlikely to tolerate the change.Another argument to remain consistent in your theme is that it will better establish you in any blog search conducted for the subject upon which your blog is based3) Post FrequentlyFrequent posting, especially in the infancy stages of your blog, will give visitors reason to return. Assuming your posts are interesting to visitors they’ll naturally check back to read more. If however you don’t give them new content to read, they’ll likely grow bored and not return. As you build up a base of regular visitors you’ll then want to focus more on higher quality post to keep them satisfied. It’s at this point you can post a little more infrequently due to the higher quality of content you’re supplying them. 4) Respond to CommentsMost good blogging sites encourage comments from their readers and your blog should be no different. Now it is what you do with these comments that will boost your popularity within the community. Get active with your readers by responding to their comments. This is what makes blogs and other social sites as popular as they are online, their interactivity. Sometimes it may take a simple ‘thanks for the comments’ and other times it may take some action on your part. Let them know you are listening! When readers suggest something, consider what they have to say or maybe even conduct a poll for opinions. Often times these suggestions lead to an improvement of your blog or blogging skills in some form or fashion. Be thankful for their help! Remember, you may be the blog owner but this is THEIR blog so listen carefully. The correct actions or responses will only deepen the loyalty of your readers.Don’t be afraid to stick your head out of the rabbit hole and go visiting other blogging sites. By conducting a quick blog search you can easily locate several blogs within your own niche. Remember these are social sites so look around and leave comments of your own. When you leave comments with a signature file containing a link back to your site you’ve open the door of opportunity for increasing the blog traffic to your site. Knowing how to blog effectively requires that attention must be paid to these 4 key areas we’ve discussed above. The result of your diligence in these areas will be reflected in the flow of traffic to your blog site and the loyalty of your readers.

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All the hype about the sale of Weblogs Inc. to America Online (AOL) has given rise to the now famous question – How much is your blog worth? In acquiring Weblogs Inc., AOL has provided some concrete metrics to future valuation of blogs. How much will traditional media be willing to pay for a blog? Conversely, how much would you sell your blog for?
AOL-Weblogs Inc. Deal – Benchmark for Future Blog Valuation
Weblogs Inc was established by Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey in 2003. It is a network of blogs which includes under its wings successful blogs such as Engadget and Autoblog. Jason Calacanis pointed out that Weblogs Inc. earns in excess of $1 million yearly in Google Adsense revenues alone.
AOL purchased Weblogs Inc. for a confidential sum assessed at somewhere between $25 – $40 million. After said purchase, Tristan Louis came up with a blog valuation scheme based on the deal. He created a chart of blog value using the value of each inbound link to Weblogs Inc. as the basis. It is common knowledge that blog readers follow links. Search engines also act as users and primarily determine blog quality rankings based on linkage data thus direct and indirect value links are a great proxy for value measurement. In the blogosphere, conversations that nurture connectivity represented by links and indexes like Technorati give a vantage view of the value of a blog.
Tristan Louis itemized the publicly available data (list of blogs indexed) at Weblogs Inc. network including the number of inbound links (Technorati blog numbers) per blog divided by the purchase price to determine the value of an inbound link to a blog. At the rumored price of $25 million, the estimated value is $ 564 per link. At $30 million, it is $677.57 per link and $903.42 at an acquisition price of $40 million. Interestingly, the consumer segment chalks up the biggest percentage of linkage. Engadget represents over a third of the overall network traffic.
Applying Tristan Louis’s Weblogs Inc, sale, Dave Winer has also sold http://Weblogs.com to Verisign for a rumored price of around $2 million. Blog entrepreneur Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media has signed a deal with VNU Media to publish Gizmodo (gadget blog) across Europe in six languages. VNU Media is a leading worldwide information and media company which owns ACNielsen, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, among others. With this deal, blog publishing has hit big time.
However, the value of a blog is not calculated based solely on links using AOL’s purchase of Weblogs Inc. Jason Calacanis, the man behind Weblogs Inc., disputed using links alone as proxy for the value of the blog network. He reiterated that the acquisition price was based also on the ever reliable revenue, earnings, management and other metrics.
Tristan Louis based his valuation scheme on links to a blog but he also acknowledged the significance of technology, talented management team, financial performance and growth. There is direct correlation between links, traffic, revenue and earnings capacity of a blog or blog network but it takes sound management to maximize all these potentials.
Value of a Blog – Some Metrics to Consider
How much is your blog worth? There is no one standard gauge yet. But one way to measure the value is to look at certain factors to gain a better perspective on how to measure the future value of a blog.
Aside from number of links as mentioned earlier, traffic level is a key factor in determining blog value. Highly trafficked blogs definitely have a bigger potential for earning compared with those blogs with few readership. A blog’s success is highly dependent on visitors/readers. However, ascertaining the value of traffic is a thorny issue. Some bloggers value traffic anywhere from $3 to $10 per hit a day. From this data, a blog with 2000 unique visitors (page views) would be worth between $6000 to $20,000. The downside to this valuation approach is that some traffic is more valuable than others. A personal blog might have 1000 unique visitors but more difficult to convert to revenue than a blog with 1000 readers that blogs on the topic of digital cameras.
Aside from diverse traffic streams that come from bookmarks, direct links or RSS subscribers will make risk of losing traffic low. Social bookmarking sites are inching their way to becoming prime sources of traffic, with peer referral at times carrying more weight than search results. There are a number of well known bookmarking sites you should link to. Top bookmarking sites include Furl, http://del.icio.us, Diggs, to name a few. By leaving an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, you can feed you readers’ desire for information. Visitors can get automatic updates whenever you provide new content. Having a fairly good base of bookmarkers and subscribers ensure a steady flow of fans and repeat readers – the all-important traffic.
In the blogosphere as in any other field, revenue or earnings is a major focus. a logical approach to blog valuation would be to base its worth upon current and projected earnings, assuming that your blog is earning something to start with. Again, there are varying views on how to use current earnings to measure a blog’s value.
Some bloggers opine you should expect six to eight months earnings as your blog value. A blog with a daily income of $150 would be worth between $27,000 – $36,000. Still, others determine a blog’s value as being two years of current earnings. A blog earning $150 a day would be worth $108,000. Again, there is a huge disparity between these methods of assessing value. Having diverse streams in the form of multiple affiliate programs also increases blog revenue. An affiliate program is an advertising model in which a blog owner markets via his blog a given product, on behalf of another company. The blog owner is reimbursed a percentage of all sales sold thru his affiliate link. Reimbursement rates can vary from 1% and upwards. Google Adsense is a prime example.
Visitors access blogs throughout the Internet primarily through search engines. If your blog does not have a post appearing in the top ten search engine rankings, the chances of visitors reaching your blog is low. A blog’s presence on relevant search engines is a significant medium for maintaining a blog’s success. Search engine ranking and pages indexed in search engines is critical for generating traffic to a blog. Having your blog among the top results of a search or receiving a high Google PageRank (a system for ranking blog posts) would increase your blog’s overall value.
High quality content will always be a key factor for determining a blog’s value. As has been said time and time again – Content is King. Moreover, search engines can only “read” a blog. What attracts a search engine are the words, the content of a blog that explains, informs, shares and educates readers. Good content increases blog value.
All these aforementioned objective metrics can be considered in assessing the value of a blog. Added to all these, a talented management team behind a blog, its underlying tools and blog technology in use can further help to estimate the future value of a blog.

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An increasing number of business entities are actively using blogs as part of their marketing strategy. Why? Blogging is providing them the ability to connect with their audience thus encouraging goodwill which in turn helps bring sales.
Marketing through Blogging
It is nothing you have not heard for quite some time now. Blogging has caused quite a stir. It has, in fact, continued to proliferate rapidly. In early days, a blog is just a personal online diary. It is a place to publish one’s thoughts, to collect and share things that one finds interesting. It is a venue to express one’s rants, raves and musings. Today, professional and amateur journalists, political pundits, business honchos, entertainers, everybody seems to be blogging. Blogs are now being used to promote a business, run a political campaign, elicit publicity, among others.
A blog or weblog is an online diary of events arranged in reverse chronological order. The author of a blog is known as a blogger and writing or maintaining a blog is referred to as blogging. An individual entry or article is called a post and is available in the form of a blog page for the public to read. A blog may have a commentary box for readers to leave comments or opinions. These comments act as stimulus for further conversations. A business or corporate blog is simply a blog about a specific business. It is an effective medium for communicating with current and potential customers to share knowledge and expertise and foster relationships.
A company that employs a well-planned blogging strategy can spur significant market gains and sales earnings. Marketing is not just promoting a product or service. More importantly, it is about understanding the needs and wants of customers and developing products or services that satisfy these needs and wants effectively.
A blog enables a company to reach out to current and potential customers, in a more personal way. A blog builds connection and links between the company and its key audience which helps the company use this network over time to improve overall business. A business blog especially if regularly updated can inform readers about a company product or service, information, industry news, tips, tutorials or company developments. Links to industry-related stories can also be found in a blog. The way the targeted audience responds to these information or content is important to any company.
A blog is a good venue for customers to air issues, concerns and give comments. Through a blog, customers can give their own inputs. A company can hear directly from customers and understand what they desire to get from a product or service. Sometimes, the most well-intentioned product under perform because of lack of customer feedback. With blogging, a company can ask for feedbacks, albeit not the whole world, but at least the blogging community. Once a company has insights into what a large community thinks of the product or service, the company can then further improve the product or service to meet customer requirements. After all, customer satisfaction is of utmost importance.
A company who listens and responds to customer feedbacks conveys the message that there is somebody who listens behind an otherwise faceless company. Because a blog is conversational, it gives the company a human voice.
This assures customers that there is a “real” person who will take care of their needs. Customers will feel an affinity with the company. Regular visits brought about by regular updates thru fresh blog entries will familiarize the customers with the company and make them feel that they personally know the company. In due time, trust and loyalty is built and relationships fostered. As we all know people generally buy products or avail the services of people they know and trust. Rest assure that return visits to the blog, maybe for more information will transpire even after a purchase has been made. As they say, customer loyalty is the end-all-be-all of marketing.
A company that utilizes customer ideas, feedbacks, and opinions can further satisfy customer needs and wants and thus facilitates goodwill in the blogging community. It is standard practice in blogging to provide a link to a thought originator which is important because backlinks are a method for search engines to rank a blog. Search engine ranking is very important. Google and Yahoo are two of the most popular search engines.
A blog is typically written daily thus the blog post is new. The search engines index the new post more often than the regular website. The result is a high rank compared to a website. If a company has a product to promote and publishes blog posts about the product regularly, chances are one of the blog posts will be found by readers who may be looking for information about the product. Hopefully, after reading the blog post, the potential customer will visit the company website and make a purchase online or buy the product in a “brick and mortar” store. Marketers acknowledge that potential customers can be customers once they find the information they want about a product from the company’s blog.
Another feature of a blog why search engines love it is a blog’s high number of incoming links. Bloggers link to other blogs, articles and websites. The reading audience is exposed to a plethora of information. Bloggers, thus, create and retain a loyal following of readers. PageRanks for blogs are usually very strong too. As you and I know, high search engine ranking translates to high traffic and more sales leads.
Generating Sales from Blogging
The way to get the most from blogging is by building a strong brand. A brand is simply value for the customer. It is good customer service and products or services that will satisfy customer needs and wants. A blog can help a company demonstrates its expertise in its industry or field. Blogs do create buzz about a company’s authority in its niche. A blog connects a company to its target audience and peers and starts a more dynamic conversation with the marketplace. A blog helps to show a company’s value, its online brand on the web. Once a company has built a strong brand, sales will just follow.
Publishing a blog will not automatically generate higher sales. However, it is an efficient way to communicate with customers and prospects. A blog in itself is an excellent tool to support a business, provide value, build relationships and establish brand and image. The ultimate purpose of a blog is to brand, to communicate and to connect. Increased sales should only be viewed as a positive indirect effect of a successful blog.

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Whether you are aware of it or not, your customers, potential clients, business associates, competitors and employees are already engaged in business blogging. They are conversing in real time about your products or services, news and developments in your niche. They are discussing about your new product release. Sad to say, if they have not spread it already, they are definitely gossiping about the customer service blunder you hoped you could keep hush-hush. Word travels fast in the blogosphere. Blogging gets you noticed and referenced, favorable or not, in your industry’s conversations. Business blogging has its benefits but, alas, it also has its share of pitfalls.
A business blog can help build your company’s reputation and credibility in your niche business area. It is a cost-effective way to communicate with targeted audience. It provides business feedbacks through comments. A well-executed blog can boost search engine rankings thus raising chances of potential customers visiting your site and ultimately generating sales.
More importantly, you should be aware of the pitfalls or perils that accompany business blogging. If you have finally figured out how blogging can work for your targeted market, then, seriously consider the technical pitfalls of creating a blog that might befall you especially if you are a newbie in the field of blogging.
Before embarking on blogging, you must have read and read some more blogs to familiarize yourself with the blogosphere especially your specific niche. Reading other blogs can spur ideas for blogging topics. Not doing any research will leave you writing in futility. You don’t know what questions your target audience wants answered and what they would like to read. More so, you might not even have a clear-cut goal. What is the purpose of your blog? What problem does it want to solve or gap to fill? You have not determined what is it you are trying to get done. You definitely will not have good topics to write about because topics should be in consonance with your business objectives. Writing without a purpose will get you nowhere. It will just turn readers away.
Not knowing how to use your blogging software properly will, in most cases, produce a non-professional-looking blog. A blogging tool goes to great pains to ensure that your blog will look good, the text look beautiful and the html code it generates follow web standards. It will be to your business advantage if you understand how the vast and sophisticated features work to increase your blog’s chance of being found on the Internet. Keep in mind that first impressions count with readers.
Not optimizing keywords, categories, subscriptions will make it difficult for readers to find your blog. The primary purpose of a blog to be successful is readership. Search engines are a great source of readers. If you are writing a blog post that you want to be read, bear in mind that readers will use keywords to find your blog entry. Keywords are vital to high search engine ranking. Top ranking equals traffic and traffic is readership. Categorizing your blog will also make it more user-friendly and make the content more search engine ranking friendly. Subscribing to an RSS feed allows readers to receive automatic updates whenever you publish fresh content. Not making frequent posts makes readers lose interest in your blog as there is nothing new to peruse. You have to make it a priority to post consistently. The more you post the more reasons the readers will come to read some more.
Finally, you have sorted out how to avert the technical perils of business blogging. Brace yourself; there are even deeper pitfalls with much more severe repercussions to consider. For one, businesses that allow misrepresentations – faulty or misleading information to appear on their blogs can create a public disaster. Some business companies keen to develop one-to-one links with customers, set up character blogs. A character blog is typically conceptualized by marketing people to promote a product or service using fictitious character. This kind of blog is quite risky as some ardent bloggers regard them as an insult to the blogging community. A classic example is the Vichy case. As part of its marketing launch for its new anti-aging cream, Vichy’s advertising team created a blog featuring a bogus author named Claire who incessantly whined about the travails of aging using the same wordings as the Vichy print ad. It elicited a flurry of negative reactions from around the blogosphere condemning Vichy for passing off a phony on their turf. Blogs are about real conversations with real people.
Turning a deaf ear to what the blogosphere is saying can be fatal to a company. Kryptonite, a lock maker company did not respond quickly to a blog comment and cost them millions of dollars. Engadget, a highly trafficked blog published a video file showing how a Bic ball pen can easily open a Kryptonite lock. Kryptonite took its time before issuing a statement that did not assuage the thousands who bought the lock in good faith. Bloggers lambasted Kryptonite and caused heavy traffic to the Engadget blog site. Finally, Kryptonite succumbed and replaced the locks at a staggering cost of $10 million. Take heed; monitor what others are saying in the blogosphere. Your blog is part and parcel of a dynamic conversation. You should track your image in the blogging arena. Reputation risks can surface if your company pays no attention or misjudge the opinions in the blogosphere.
Business blogging can expose your company to legal problems that can cause serious damage to your business reputation. Irresponsible blogging can subject your company to libel, slander and even harassment lawsuits. Off-hand comments may offend customers. Disclosure of confidential corporate information and trade secrets will definitely place a company in jeopardy. Several instances of indiscreet blogging have caused employee terminations. Ellen Simonetti, A Delta Air Lines employee was fired for posting inappropriate images of herself in uniform on her blog. A system administrator at the Manitoba Health Sciences Centre was sacked after posting on his blog “Sitting around doing nothing for three hours while being paid – priceless.” Needless to say, companies should draw up corporate blogging policies that will state clearly acceptable and unacceptable blogging practices. Companies should educate its employees about the business and legal risks involved with blogging.
In a nutshell, do not blog for the sake of blogging. A clear business goal is a must. See to it that your blog reflects your company’s desired image. Carefully weigh the implications of anything you post. Be wary of potential consequences and be reminded that with blogging, anything that appears on the Internet is instantly available to a global massive audience.

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The blogging phenomenon has started to make companies view the potential benefits of corporate blogging. They all agree that blogs achieve a mass media effect through the high level of networking in the blogosphere wherein news disseminates very rapidly. The blogosphere (online community of blogs and their writings) has heralded a new communication tool that can influence public opinion of a company. However, companies are slow to react to the growing credibility of corporate blogs as communication channels.
A recent list of Fortune 500 company blogs shows that only 5% of the United States’ corporations have joined the blogging arena. Companies are treading this still unfamiliar territory with caution and skepticism. Company executives, public relations people and legal experts are just starting to figure out how they can utilize the potential of business blogs without subjecting themselves especially their companies to possible complications. Indeed, some companies are hesitant to plunge into the “scary” world of blogging for fear of encountering legal and business risks inherent in blogging such as libel, slander, lawsuits and disclosure of confidential and proprietary information.
Despite the fear, some industry leaders like Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems and General Motors, to name a few, have dived headlong into corporate blogging. These companies recognize that a blog is an immensely effective yet low cost way to boost corporate communications and marketing objectives and at the same time connect with customers and prospects.
Basically, a blog (short for weblog) is published with easy to use software that enables a blogger (blog author) to create and update blog pages from which he can express his thoughts on a particular subject. Written article on a blog is called a “post” and can be linked to other blogs, websites, news features, photo images and audio files. Links added to the text of blog posts allow blog content to be indexed and accessed by popular search engines such as Technorati and then disseminated in the web.
A corporate blog makes it easy for readers, be they customers or prospects, to find the latest and most accurate information about its new products and services. It can help achieve customer familiarity with the company products or services. Through the corporate blog, a company can converse directly with customers and prospects. Two-way communication creates trust and builds customer relationships. A corporate blog is the perfect choice for interacting with existing and potential clients. Corporate blogging serves as a channel for a company and its customers to meet on common ground and to know each other more. A corporate blog allows a company to closely track where and under what condition its products or services are being discussed online. Through the corporate blog, a company can keep an ear to the ground to hear what is being said about the company and speaking up when the situation calls for it. A more personal or understated benefit of a corporate blog is that it gives a human face to a perceived faceless and detached business entity. A corporate blog conjures images of people who are passionate about their products or services and are eager to engage customers and prospects.
It is a risky world out there and the blogosphere is no exception. For companies who are contemplating on setting out into the world of corporate blogging, it is in your best interests to have knowledge of some basic dos and don’ts of corporate blogging.
First on the agenda is do determine whether your company needs a corporate blog. A blog might be inappropriate for your company. Not all corporate cultures can tolerate the open, direct communication inherent to make a corporate blog successful. There are instances where blogs could not be reconciled with business practices and regulations. Clearly, there are risks to consider. Risks lie mainly in the content and the character or tone of comments which admittedly can only be censored to a limited degree.
If a corporate blog can fit your company culture, selecting the individual or employee who will write your blog is doubtless to say the most important decision. An ideal corporate blogger is one who is an expert in his field. He should also write with passion and sincerity. The object of your blog is to engage your customers and prospects in conversation and the most effective way to start a conversation is to be sincere and honest in your blog while writing about topics that are important to your company. He should have good writing skills. More importantly, he should be one who is respected by his peers and reacts calmly to outbursts. Blogging is an intense medium. The individuals who will blog for your company should be the ones who can keep their cool despite critical comments. Most likely, the ideal individual is not your CEO. Corporate speak won’t thrive in the blogosphere.
In corporate blogging, goals/missions are of prime importance. For a blog to yield value, it has to be created with specific goals in mind. Some of these goals may be to increase company credibility, enhance customer service and interaction, and give customers a peek of the behind-the-scenes “feel” of the corporate culture, showcase new products or services and more. The important thing is to be clear about your goals. You have to be sure about what you are trying to get done and stick to them. As with any corporate undertaking, you also need to periodically evaluate how well you are meeting these goals. If blogging is proving to be futile, then make changes. If it still does not work, then discontinue blogging.
Do take time to know your customers or prospects. Find out what your audience care about, what they are interested in. You have to identify what their needs are and what service you can perform for them. To get their attention, work out a way to participate in a conversation credibly. To be credible, come up with worthwhile content – ideas, insights, news and information. Content need not be long but should be interesting. Corporate blogs should not veer away from its chosen categories or topics. This is not to say you cannot be personal in your blog posts because you should, but the audience you are trying to connect with do not want to read through your blog if it is injected with a litany of personal rumblings.
Do engage your audience in lively and substantial conversations. Take into account what they say and reply to their comments. Respond in a professional and businesslike manner whether the comment is positive or negative. Allowing comments from your audience will definitely mean some complaints and criticisms. Don’t take them personally. Respond honestly and your company credibility will rise. Allowing audience to make comments is a distinct characteristic of blogs. Openness is important for successful blogging. That said, use a feedback filter or comment moderation to monitor and control comments and delete comment spam (useless comments).
For a blog to accomplish its mission, do update regularly. Post frequently and consistently, daily or weekly, at least. Do be generous with your links. Linking is one reason why blogging has become a popular online communication medium. The best corporate blogs, more often than not, have lots of links in each blog post.
Do draw up a set of corporate blogging policies. Set limits on what information can be made public. Make clear what is allowed and what is not. Legal issues crop up in blogging. It is better to have some safety nets. In drafting blogging policies, it is advisable to do some research on it and publish proposed policies to get some feedback.
As for what not to do, do not close down existing employee blogs. More often than not, an employee is already writing a blog. It might be full of grievances about the recent spate of oil increases or it could be snapshots of a relaxing vacation in the Maldives. Maybe this employee is singing praises of the company’s new product. Why not engage this employee blogger in a dialogue about what your corporate blog aims to achieve. Don’t wait for a crisis to break out before creating a corporate blog. It takes time to see potential results of blogging. Don’t keep your corporate bloggers anonymous or hidden behind some make-believe characters. The audience will know and it will have detrimental effects.
Lastly, a blog is not a miracle cure. It will not single-handedly turn your distressed company around. Corporate blogging should be incorporated with other marketing and communication tools to achieve desired results.

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