Five Ways A Blog Helps You To Market Your Business

Want to advertise online without spending a fortune? Get a

blog.



If you're an Internet marketer, you need a blog, because:



* a blog helps your site to rank higher in the search

engines; and



* a blog expands your customer base.



Blogs are often called social marketing tools, because they

let you interact with your readers via comments and

permalinks (see the glossary below.)



What's a blog? Get up to speed here:



* http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g



* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs



Let's look at five ways a blog helps you to market your

business.



One: A blog helps your site to rank higher in the search

engines



In 2003, when Google bought Pyra Labs, the company which

developed Blogger, the reaction was Huh? At the time, blogs

were seen by most as online journals, primarily maintained

by the demented and teenage girls.



How times change. In 2005, companies small and large are

using blogs to promote their businesses. This is because

Google and the other search engines love blogs because of

their constantly updated content.



Blog often, and you'll get more visitors and a good search

engine ranking.



Two: A blog expands your customer base – you'll reach

people you could reach in no other way



A blog helps you to reach people you can reach in no other

way because your frequent updates mean that you'll

automatically get niche visitors – those people who have no

clue about you or the product that you're selling, but who

happened to type in a search engine query that mentioned

words you used in a single post.



Those niche visitors can become buyers, and this means that

you don't need to struggle to get top listings in any

search engine. Write (or link to) quality content, and your

visitors will find you.



Three: A blog helps your site to differentiate itself



A blog is a form of stealth marketing. Therefore a blog

doesn't need to be about the products you're selling. A

blog can be about any topic that you're passionate about.

Blog about your passion, and mention – in passing – the

products you're selling. You can also link to them, but

don't bother selling heavily – that's not what a blog is

about.



Four: Like a diamond, a blog is forever



Although the most-visited blogs update often, some of them

several times a day, that doesn't mean that you have post

more often than you can fit into your schedule. Your

permalinks (see below) mean that since your blog items are

standalone pages, they're indexed by search engines in the

same way that any HTML or other page is indexed – your blog

items/ pages will continue to bring traffic even if you

don't update very often.



Five: A blog attracts new opportunities



A blog makes your business visible. Your stealth marketing

efforts will attract the attention of people who may become

joint venture partners, or who will have other

opportunities for you.



The time and energy that you invest in your blog can bring

results beyond your wildest expectations. Create a blog –

it's your hardest-working, and most cost-effective online

marketing option.



GLOSSARY:

Blog = Web log.

Permalink = permanent link, an URL for a single blog post.

Comment = blogs have a comments section, where readers can

interact with the blogger and others.



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Michael Murray is a 22-year old full-time Internet marketer

and college student with Cerebral Palsy who lives in sunny

Orlando Florida. His latest site is an information center

on spyware remover information