www.diyara.com

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

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The new hot commodity is a blog for your small business so you’ve decided you must have one.

Before you begin think about it long term. Where do you think
the blog is headed? What is the objective? Do you want it to be
found by the search engines for specific terms? How often
will you post? Who will the audience be? What will it look like
a year from now? Five years from now?

If you think you may have this blog for a long time, consider
hosting it with your own domain name. Blogger provides you
with a free domain name (name.blogspot.com), or the option
of ftp to your own domain. If, at some point in time in the
future you want to move the blog and you’ve been using the
blogspot name, you won’t be able to take it with you. This means
that all of the people who have your blog in their reader will
“lose” you. It also means that you’ll have to start from ground
zero with the search engines.

Do some digging before you jump. A couple of good networks
where you can get some education are:

- Blogging for Business at http://blogbrandz-network.ryze.com/
Make sure you sign up for the “Blogging for Marketers” email course. Priya has loaded the course with good blog information (and it costs you nothing).

- Blogger Forum at http://www.bloggerforum.com/modules/newbb/
The Blogger Forum is very welcoming to newbies. Browse around
and just by looking at previous posts, you can learn a ton. they also have a section on blog platforms which talks about the different options available.

Once you’re ready to go, what are you going to write about? Make sure you’ve brainstormed ideas so you don’t run into the inevitable writer’s block. You can always start with what you’ve written before. Do you have a newsletter? Look through your archive and “refresh” some of those old topics as a blog posting. How about your website? Do you have content you can turn into a blog topic? Do you participate in online forums or discussion lists? Find some advice you gave to someone there and turn it into a blog post.

This should get you started. Remember that small business blogging is a long term activity. Be ready.

Denise O’Berry is a small business expert who helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Don’t know what to write about? Get the cure for blog writer’s block at http://www.whatspossible.com/blogidea/

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(Continued from Blogging Your Way To Success Part 1)

By now, you have already configured your blog name, description, personal profile, and the page template. As soon as you set up your blogging account with Blogger, you will need to do this next:

Post At Least 20 Articles

=====================

While this may sound like hard work, there is no short cut around it. This, you have to do. It is mandatory. Why?

Before you start whining, let me remind you that you are in business. If you are serious enough about making your money then this should not bother you much. Now, the reason I ask of you to post at least 20 articles is because you need to have a REAL website to be in the game of Internet Business.

In the later part of this series, you will find out why this is important for setting up your AdSense account.

Anyway, post at least 20 articles. I recommend you post 25 or 30 articles to start with. Your articles need not be long. At least 200-500 words would do. Post them all in a day, if possible.

Be sure that your articles are relevant to your topic or niche. For example, if you are authoring a blog on Internet Marketing so let all your articles be related to Internet Marketing.

If 20 articles sound very hectic for you, you can source for other people’s articles from article submission web sites such as www.ezinearticles.com and www.articlecity.com as long as they have reprint rights and you include the authors byline. This can give you a good start but be sure not to keep using other people’s articles too often as this can damage your own reputation in a long run. Very soon, you will need to write your own articles. This is your blog.

Keep A Daily Archive

=====================

If you would browse your Blogger settings, you will want to set your archive to “archive daily”. So now, you have at least 20 articles which mean 20 posts. And since you have set “archive daily”, you have at least 20 pages of REAL content now.

Awesome!

Get A Feedback Form

===================

This is the next important thing to do on the list. You want people give you their feedbacks, comments, suggestions and also constructive criticism. This involves more technical knowledge. If you are not familiar with scripting, I have two great sources where you can get the scripts for free and does not require a lot of technical knowledge.

http://www.freedback.com

http://www.bignosebird.com

Set up the forms on your blog for your visitor’s convenience. You want to know what they think of your web site and at the same time, find out what their demands are so you can cater to them accordingly.

In the next part of the series, we will get you an account with AdSense.

(To be continued in Blogging Your Way To Success Part 3)

Copyright © Edmund Loh

About the Author:
Edmund Loh is the author of the E-Biz Wiz Blog and Starting An Internet Business Special Report. Visit E-Biz Wiz Blog for proven ideas, tips and information on starting your own Internet Business and subscribe to the 12 Day Internet Marketing Success Course. http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com

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