Start Blogging Now: 10 Reasons Why You Really Need a Blog for Your Business

1. It is perfect for creating a web presence for independent professionals who have something to say and who need people to get to know them and what they can do for them.

2. Having your own business blog gives you credibility and a forum where you can show your expertise.

3. Readers can comment directly onto your blog, creating interaction and interest.

4. No more waiting for your web designer to update your web site.

5. You can post to your blog yourself, about any issue, daily if you wish, and get it broadcast into the blogosphere instantly.

6. The search engines love blogs and will pick up your keywords easily, boosting your rankings, making it easier for people to find you on the web.

7. Customers are drawn to personality behind the business. Human voices convey intimacy beyond PR-babble. (To read about this topic read The Cluetrain Manifesto. The first chapter is available free online: http://cluetrain.com/apocalypso.html.)

8. You can network and build up a community of like-minded readers. You blog, people comment. Others blog, you comment. Before you know it, more people have heard of you and your business because the buzz gets passed around.

9. You can test out new ideas and get instant feedback. Get your customers and prospects in on the act now and let them help you help them - invite them to talk back! Let them see how you develop your products and services and they can show you how to best to serve them.

10. You can use your blog side-bars to promote your products, your affiliate products, run blog ads, sell books, and any other product or services you have. You don't have to include this in the body or content of your article; therefore your posts - your writing - can remain content rich and free of promotional hype.

Finally, email marketing and electronic newsletters are struggling because of over-crowded inboxes, spam problems and filters.

- On the average, 64.7% of the business e-mail you send is not even opened, let alone read. [source: Q3 2004 Email Trend Report, DoubleClick ]

- E-mail marketers are seeing their open-rates range from only "mid-20s to just over 50 %" [source: ClickZ.com]

- That means that you are losing at least 50% of your prospective buyers or readers. How much does that amount to in losses over the course of the next few years?

- AOL receives roughly 2 billion e-mail messages a day, of which about 75 percent are blocked and another 4 to 7 percent are sent to the bulk folder. [source: ClickZ.com]

Sit up and pay attention. The time to start blogging for your business is now.

Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com

In The News:


E-Mail marketing and blogging provider iContact gets $5 million in ...
InternetRetailer.com, IL - Sep 4, 2008
"We have worked hard to bring the best e-mail marketing, blogging, and RSS feed web application in the world to our customers. It is our mission to be the ...

9 Things To Think About When Planning An Executive Blog
Social Computing Magazine, NY - 20 hours ago
Perform a content audit that covers not only existing content that should be surfaced, but external content (RSS feeds,blogs,industry sites) that needs to ...

Travel 2.0 marketing services for hotels launched
m-Travel.com - 10 hours ago
It combines blogging, RSS feed syndication, Twittering and email harvesting with hotel profiles on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, Photobucket, Squidoo, ...

Appscout

Google says Goodbye to RSS, Hello to Followers
Appscout, NY - Aug 28, 2008
It mashes up blogging, RSS, and social networking without doing anything but changing the terminology. Blogger Buzz says eventually it will integrate with ...

What is FriendFeed’s Effect on Blogging?
Mashable, CA - Sep 4, 2008
... and the majority of it all ends up in an RSS feed at multiple points along the way. In short, micro-blogging isn’t killing traditional blogging, ...

The Social Media Minute
CMSWire, CA - 2 hours ago
... YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, and the RSS feed for your own blog. In a way, this is similar to the popular lifestreaming service FriendFeed, ...

Pro-Blogger - How to have a Constant Stream of Blogging Ideas
PR CannaZine (press release), UK - Sep 2, 2008
Now, subscribe to RSS feeds on those topics, or printed magazines, newsletters - anything that has info on those subjects. ...

Sponsored Review: PoliWatch.org
Donklephant - 19 hours ago
... 2008 and is filed under Blogging, Democrats, Independents, Republicans, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. ...

come on baby! Fack me ,,,,,,wow wow wow
indiainteracts.com, India - Sep 4, 2008
... September 4th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. ...

FriendFeed is not killing blogging [Time Management 101]
The Inquisitr, Australia - Sep 3, 2008
FriendFeed helps my blogging, and doesn’t hinder it. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter. ...
blogging rss - Google News

Make Money Blogging Using These Nine Powerful Strategies

The question "How to make money blogging" sits high on... Read More

How Yahoos Recent Facelift Can Mean More Traffic To Your Site

It even surprised me. Yes, even though I have... Read More

How to Get Started Blogging in 5 Minutes or Less

I put off starting a blog for a long time... Read More

Small / Medium Business Blog Process Outsourcing as a Website Traffic Building Service

You are a small or a medium business owner. You... Read More

The 7 Steps to Promoting Your RSS Feeds on Your Website

RSS gets 100% of your content delivered, but it's no... Read More

Podcasting vs. Blogging

The US Navy blogs. Larry Kudlow of CNBC blogs. I'd... Read More

How and Why to RSS

RSS feeds and blogs (and blog and pinging) are part... Read More

7 Questions To Ask Yourself BEFORE Staring A Business Blog

Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing and PR.... Read More

6 Ways That Blogging Can Save You Money

Even though I've had several personal blogs for years, I've... Read More

RSS Feeds and How to Use Them

RSS feeds are the most important technology to arrive on... Read More

RSS is a Life Raft, Saving Us from a Sea of Useless Information

One of the main problems with the Internet these days... Read More

RSS & How to Use It (part 1)

Have you ever read an article, intended to explain RSS... Read More

Google AdSense and Blogs

If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting... Read More

How To Profit From Your Home Business Blog

A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers... Read More

RSS Feeds Future Revealed

I don't claim to be a futurologist or an RSS... Read More

Introduction to Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

Really Simple Syndication is exactly what it's name states. A... Read More

Internet News Services Explode Online

It seems no matter how much information comes available online,... Read More

Are You Thinking of Republishing RSS Feeds?

There is lively debate about the republishing of RSS feeds... Read More

How To Add Random RSS Content To Your Site

Most savvy internet marketers will know how important it is... Read More

Promoting Your Business Using Blogs

Internet marketing using blogs has quickly gained a lot of... Read More

Internet Communication

Email, Instant Messaging, Blogs, RSS, Forums and Listservs: What's Next?How... Read More

Blogging on Ecademy Will Boost Your Web Site

For many people blogging is the way in which they... Read More

Marketing With Blogs - Part 2

In part 1 of this article series on marketing with... Read More

RSS & How to Use It -- Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of the article that aims to... Read More

Blogging: A Profit Making Internet Option

Blogging is a relatively new form of communication, closely related... Read More