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What is a Blog and Other Blog Questions

If you are planning on adding blogging to your business repertoire or as part of your internet marketing strategy, you must first get some answers to a few questions concerning the impact that blogging can have on your business. Therefore, a few questions regarding this and their answers have been put together for you.

First, what exactly is a blog - is it like a journal you write in every day?

It can be a journal, or be used like a website to promote your business. It can even be used to generate traffic to your main website. I think one of the main differences between a blog and a website is that you are constantly updating your content on a blog which makes your site more attractive to search engines and readers alike. Also, they can be more personal and even more interactive, if you will.

Further questions that need to be answered are: Why would anyone want to look at it? If I’m having trouble getting people to my website, why/how would getting them to my Blog be any easier? How exactly does it impact your website? I realize you would have a link to your site, but why would more people find your blog than found your website to begin with?

Readers (I would like to say humans as a whole) are constantly searching for new information, new ways of doing things, other peoples’ stories, ways to connect to other individuals, etc. and blogs are one means of providing that bridge or connection to those searching. Blogging is not different in that way from websites per se, but it has now become something of a trend, the way to do things “Now,” the latest craze.

Blogging is just one of the newer ways of getting out to others what you have to say, what you have to advertise and even more simply, taking out the random thoughts you have running around in your mind and putting them on screen (paper). People (you and me) are instinctively curious and we WILL read what Johnny did in the bathroom today or which is the best nail clipper to use or what the latest diet pill did to Susie’s colon, hypothetically speaking, of course.

Again, I don’t think it is necessarily easier than promoting your website, but it is a given fact that search engines recognize and love when a site is updated and when a site is “content rich.” They absolutely love it and will then recognize your blog because of it, your “Page Rank” will improve, searchers will notice you because your site is let’s say, one of the top ten or at least listed in the appropriate directories, and that will then generate traffic to your other sites or affiliate programs that you may be advertising.

Blogging is a way to connect emotionally to your readers by speaking to them on a more personal level. This will help sales. Blogging is not really about selling your product in the sense that it is not a sales letter, rather a way to let your reader get to know who you are. Creating that emotional connection builds trust, so when you say that so and so product is great and you explain how much they need it and how you have tried it and what it has done for you, they really believe you and will buy the product.

So these few questions address some of the basics of blogging and how it can impact your business. Don’t hesitate to use this wonderful resource to connect to the world through your fingertips.

Take care and have fun blogging!

Elizabeth Amaro is a work at home mom who blogs for a living among other explorative online occupations. She enjoys staying at home and spending time with her husband and two children.

It has been established that having a ‘blog’ helps your web site gain visitors and higher rankings in search engines. But a small study which I have just completed shows that blogging is much more important than this. Blogging appears to be absolutely essential to your web site success. If you are not blogging, your web site will fade into obscurity.

Since blogging took off in the past year or so, there have been several ‘theories’ about it’s importance. Some people have suggested that it will mean the end of journalism, as we all become our own ‘reporters’. Others have predicted it will mean the end of civilisation as we know it. More practically, there have been several well sourced articles which suggest that blogging is a significant component in a web site’s success. Sites that include a blog, the theory goes, will be rewarded by Google with higher positioning on search engine results.

Like all theories, there is only one way to find out if they are true and that is to put them to the test. So, I decided to test the ‘Google ranking theory of blogging’.

My site, http://www.infoselling.com has over 200 pages in it, most of which are indexed by Google. Last week, one of those pages was consistently number one (out of 42,300) for the term ‘infoproduct’. Two other pages in the site were ranked consistently at 12 and 13 (the top two slots on the second results page).

Up until this point I had been writing a daily blog at the site and ‘pinging’ it to the various weblog sites. To test the theory, I stopped writing my blog and then re-checked the results. Five days without blogging has had a significant impact. The page which was number one, is now number six. The pages that were at the top of page two are now at the bottom of page three.

It would appear that no other web pages for the term ‘infoproduct’ have been added to the Google list in the past five days since the number of pages in the results is still 42,300. The only thing that I changed in my site was the blogging.

Now, it’s true that other sites may have changed and that I have suffered as a result. It may not be just the lack of blogging on my part. However, the top two pages are from a site which adds pages on a daily basis - and they were immediately below me while I was blogging away! Hence, whether you add content using traditional techniques, or you blog, the number one rule for maintaining your web site ranking in Google is add content - every day, without fail. As I’ve discovered, even five days can have a dramatic impact. If you are not adding content to your web site every day, you stand a very real chance of losing your place in the Google search results.

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has specialized in the way we use the Internet. He is an expert on information products and runs Infoselling.com where you can get a FREE report on how to sell your own infoproducts.

http://www.infoselling.com

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