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By Doc Pratt A blog is a “web log,” or a “journal.” They are used for anything from personal random thoughts and rants to professional and business ideas. In some instances blogs can also serve as a website. There are free blogs that you can get; the best source for them is blogger.com. It has its limitations, but it is free and also owned by Google. Paid blogs (less than $10 USD per month) give you more flexibility and a feature I like, which is having different categories to post articles in. Categories can also be broken down to subcategories for more detail. A CRM blog can have a category for Marketing and subcategories for Consumer and Business. If you are serious about starting and maintaining a blog and have a strategy in place, go for a paid one. One of the most prevalent paid blogs is Typepad. From a business standpoint a blog is an excellent way to raise your visibility and position yourself as an expert in any field. Since people can post comments on your blog articles, then it gives you interaction to with the world. Some key points to remember when creating a blog are to use keywords just as you would in a website, and have a link to your website. Make sure also your website will link back to your blog. When writing articles keep in mind keywords relative to the article - search engines do index blog articles. Blogs are substantially changing the way that the world communicates, from a one-on-one individual standpoint, all the way to the CEO level of business. They allow for CEOs to freely express their thoughts and receive comments from others. Whether or not the comments are responded to, or even read, is purely optional. Bob Parsons of Godadddy.com responds to a few comments, while Donald Trump probably doesn’t. One note about Donald Trump’s blog, he made the mistake of posting something about the feud (war) with Rosie O’Donnell. Needless to say he will probably set a record for the number of comments for a single blog posting. Before you jump right in there and create a blog, look at what other people are doing. The best way to get an idea of how blogs work and how they can be used is search for them; Google has a search engine specifically for blogs, http://blogsearch.google.com/. Search on a couple of key phrases or words. You can also see how people are using paid versus free blogs by adding blogspot (free) or blogharbor or typepad( paid) to the search. Blogs have been around for a few years and are growing rapidly. When you have some extra time go to the Google blog search and look at what other people do. This should help to give you an idea of how you can position your expertise in the world of blogs. One other note or warning about Blogger.com, the free blog; unless you mask it out, there is a “next blog” button on the screen of your blog. If your visitor clicks on it, they have gone away from your blog to someone else’s, and the next blog may be something you do not want your visitor to see. Sign up for a Free Trail Blog to see
how it will work for you.
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