Blogging is not a “new thing.” Some computer-savvy people have been blogging long before there was even a term for it. The term keeps growing in popularity, and now it seems that almost everyone has a blog… Even though they are popular, they are still somewhat hard to define. A blog can take on many identities – from that of a snazzy business website or even a simple online journal. Confused? Thought so… Read on for more info!
What is a Blog?
A blog, which is a shortened version of the term web log, is compromised of posts or entries that the owner makes and publishes to the Internet. Those posts are normally posted by date and are viewed in a reverse order, with your newest posts showing first on the page.
The cool thing about a blog is that you can post anything you’d like on it whenever you like and it’s as easy as typing your post and clicking a publish button. You can create a blog for any purpose, whether it be to talk about happenings in your life to business topics, whatever you want.
How Does a Blog Help My Online Business?
There are many ways a blog can help an online business. Here are just a few.
People love to get to know the real you, especially if you are an online business owner that they will probably never have a chance to meet in person. Even though the Internet has opened many doors for businesses there is still the lack of personality in visiting someone’s website. It’s human nature to want to know more about who they are doing business with and a blog allows you to give them a closer relationship with you.
With a blog you can take your business to a bit more of a personal level if you’d like by putting a bit of yourself in your posts. You can also keep it strictly business in your posts if you’d like as well. With a blog, you make the choice. You can be personal without affecting the professional side of your web site.
Visitors have the ability to interact with you via comments on your blog. Many businesses have support desks or customer service emails, but many of your visitors will never use these features just to let you know their feelings on something. With the comment function on a blog, your visitors can post to your blog and it will become part of your blog post, once approved by you. This can make for great customer interaction.
Where Can I Start a Blog?
The great thing about a blog is that you can start one with little or no money out of pocket. There are free services that will allow you to host your blog on their servers. Two of the more common ones are Blogger and WordPress.
It’s a wise idea to purchase your own domain however as many people will remember your blog name, but may not remember to add the subdomain when they type the URL into their browser. This also gives you more freedom to make changes and customize your blog, but is not necessary however.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to blogging. You can find a ton of information online that will give you a more indepth look at blogs and why they are so popular, including how easy they are to set up. Take the time to learn as much as you can about blogging, because it’s one of the ways you can help to grow your Internet marketing business.