กBloggingก For Fun & Profits

กBloggingก For Fun & Profits

by: Jim Edwards

Unless youกve been under a rock for the last year, youกve heard the term กblogก once or twice.

To most people, a กblogก simply represents a glorified online กdiaryก where geeks, computer nerds, and lonely teenagers record their thoughts in cyberspace.

However, many people don’t realize that กblogsก are quietly revolutionizing the way companies and customers interact about everything from existing products to new ideas and improvements in customer service.

In short, กblogก style communication has come of age and anyone with an online business better sit up and take notice fast!

In the beginning, กblogsก were basically an online diary to record your thoughts; but กblogsก have now evolved into dynamic websites that nontechnical people can update immediately without html editors or ftp programs.

Blogs allow their authors to make instant website updates through a computer anywhere in the world with a Web browser and Internet connection.

Blogs also allow readers to respond to the authorกs posts, provide additional information, links, expanded opinions, and more.

In short, an active กblogก creates an interactive community with the author as the hub and the readers as the spokes of the wheel that keep the whole cycle turning round.

Unlike traditional กstaticก web pages where content rarely (if ever) changes, an active blog evolves in a state of constant and neverending renewal.

With blogs, smart online businesses rediscovered a principal that small กmom and popก stores understood for years: know your customers and stay in close tune with their wants, needs, and desires.

Large companies throw billions of dollars down a black hole every year to literally กguessก what people want to buy. Most call it the กMarketing Department.ก

On the flipside, smart online businesses understand that blogs allow you to avoid guessing whatกs on your customersก minds and provide an active and uptotheminute means for them to tell you exactly what they do and don’t like about your services, products, and virtually any other aspect of the market.

This lightning fast communication makes it possible for small companies to literally snatch huge market share away from more traditional companies.

Blogging also has a distinct advantage over traditional email newsletters in that subscribers can get udpates without having to receive an email message. Through the power of RSS (real simple syndication), subscribers get notified of updated content though an rss news reader.

Bottom Line: publishing a blog with an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to means your content NEVER gets blocked by a SPAM filter.

Blog software basically comes in 2 flavors: hosted and standalone. Hosted blogging solutions make it extremely easy to get set up with a blog, often in just a couple of minutes.

If you know how to type, you can create a blog. Log on to Blogger.com and you can set up a blog free of charge and start posting in just a few minutes.

Blogger.com (owned by search giant, Google) will even host your blog on their servers.

Typepad.com, which charges as little as $4.95 per month, is also an excellent hosted service offering additional features that enable you to quickly get your own blog up and running.

The alternative is standalone blogging software installed on your own website.

A very popular solution is Moveable Type, available from moveabletype.org, which provides a very versatile and powerful suite of tools for creating a fullfeatured blog to rival that of any size company in the world.

This is the solution Iกve chosen for my blog at http://www.IGottaTellYou.com/blog/

Whichever blogging solution you choose, if you plan to successfully conduct any form of business online, understand that a กblogก must form an integral part of your overall plan for customer communication and interaction.

© Jim Edwards All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the coauthor of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple ‘traffic Machineก brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

This article was posted on August 13

by Jim Edwards