Web Promotion Articles :: The Definitive Guide To Blogging

This guide is aimed at anyone blogging or not blogging, but at least interested. If you do not even know what a blog is, its explained here. If you already blog but could use some tips on how to use your blog more effectively, read on.

What is blogging?

Put most simply, blogging is just writing. The word 'Blog' comes from 'Web Log'. Its like a diary in that it is a series of entries. You start one off and then update your blog with more writing. A blog centralises around one subject so for example you may have a blog about your favourite football team and update it with your thoughts on their progress, managers decisions, performance and new signings. Or you could have a blog about yourself and use it like an actual diary, updating it with events in your life. A blog is not private though, so anyone will be able to read your entries. Blogs can be powerful marketing tools, used to give people updates on your website or products and you can link from a blog to your website or product marketing page.

How to start Blogging

Blogging is easy:

Find a host (a place to put your blog)
Create an account with your host (don't worry, its free!)
Set up the layout and looks of your blog -there will usually be templates to choose from
Start writing!

Blogging for Profit and Traffic

You can use your blog to divert traffic to a website. You can put links to pages on your site relevant to your blog post, or just links to your site homepage. Either way, a link is an opportunity for someone to check out your website. The more links you have on the net, the more traffic you will get. So, make use of blogging and post your links!

Blogging can be a great marketing tool. You can post affiliate links on it or links to selling pages on your site. Remember, the more relevant a blog is to the product you are selling, the higher the conversion rate will be (the percentage of visitors which become paying customers). Someone finding your blog has been looking for that topic and so may be interested in relevant products.

Using Other Peoples Blogs for Traffic to Your Site

If you can add a comment to someone's blog, you could also add a link. If the link is relevant, the owner of the blog may leave your link on. If you search for "Search Engine Optimization Blogs" on Google, some of the results returned have a Page Rank of 5 and higher. This makes them high quality links which will help your websites search position greatly. So search Google for blogs related to your websites subject and see if you can get links from the top results. This is a very effective website promotion strategy. Ensure the link back to your site, in the comment post, is attached to keywords you are targeting.

The Benefits Of An Interactive Blog

If you allow comments on your blog, your blog may turn into a mini forum. It could get many people returning to it to see if their comments have been answered and to post again. This is a great way of increasing traffic to your blog.

Warnings About Blogging

Blogs are public and many give you the option to allow people to comment. It may be a bad idea to allow people to leave comments or to edit your blog. Not everyone on the net is an upstanding pillar of the online community like yourself, so expect negative or just plain rude and abusive posts. These may turn people away from your blog which is obviously not a good thing, especially if you are using your blog to sell products or direct traffic to your website. These sort of posts are fairly rare however and as long as you check your blog regularly, you can get rid of such posts.

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