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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 whole concept of Blogging first appeared in the 1990’s when it emerged as a way to make comment on a webpage. It was an opportunity for visitors to make their opinions known. For something which started as a way to make one or two comments on a webpage it has evolved into something which enables people to talk about their own views and experiences at great length.

Understandably internet marketers and others have seen the potential in this new online environment and they have tapped into the blog’s potential.

So how can you easily make use of “blogging” as an Internet marketing tool.

1.First and foremost blogging is easy! The easiest way to get your thoughts or information onto the internet is through blogging. No particular skills are necessary beyond the ability to type and construct an intelligible posting. It’s like having a virtual notepad on which you can write your ideas, experiences, new products, and encourage your readers to take up your offers and your products.

2. Blogging is Real. Nowadays advertising pervades so many different aspects of our lives to such an extent that we filter much of it out. However, in blogs, we perceive that real people are sharing their real-life experiences, without being tainted by paid advertising. It feels as if reading blogs about products is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. Many of us want to buy a tried and tested product with real testimonials.

3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webspace is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.

4. Blogging can build credibility. As you get more and more comfortable with writing about your particular products or niche, your readers come to recognise that they can depend on your posts. As this starts to happen they are more likely to start to take up your recommendations. As such, you start to be perceived as an expert on your niche and as a consequence, your blog gets more visitors and other bloggers may start linking to your blogs.

5. Blogging can help to build your market. You might like to consider some of the following ways to build your market through blogging:

By using subscription.

A relatively easy way to get your readers e-mail is to encourage them to subscribe to your blog. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give you their e-mail address. Ensure that you treat their email address in a responsible manner in using it, because the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

Get to understand your visitors.

Conduct a simple survey for your visitors to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask them to give you feedback on a post, a link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

Joining blog networks

XA network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same niche, interest, readership base etc. Visitors find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a subject.

By using RSS.

RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Paul Duxbury is a successful online marketer who has recently launched http://www.web-success.co.uk the first port of call to those new to Internet Marketing. In 2006 he will launch the http://www.informembership.com

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