New Kids on the BLOG
By Dan Beldowicz, Single Throw Consultant

Are you new to Blogging? Do you really know the power of Blogging and what a BLOG can do for your business?
 
BLOGs are full of search engine friendly content and allow readers to post their own specific comments on whatever the topic may be. In the case of building and marketing a business, the power of a BLOG can be huge and help you in more ways than you might think, including higher visibility for your company and establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

So why are you making excuses for not having a BLOG? Or if you do have one, why aren’t you posting to it? Most people use the excuse, "I don’t have the time," or "I don’t know what to write about." Sorry, but unless you keep yourself locked away in a room from the rest of the world, you’ve got plenty of topics to write about! How about starting with your business?

Here’s how you can start today: "Google Alerts"! (http://www.google.com/alerts) This is a great tool for staying current with your industry news without having to read every trade magazine. Simply enter your search terms and select whether to search news, BLOGs, the web, groups or you can even do a comprehensive search in all areas. Google will then monitor your search terms and send you an email when it finds new information on those terms. Instantly—and usually several times a day—you have new or related topics to read and write about. This free and easy tool will save you time and give you an abundance of topics to BLOG about. As you receive the alerts, write a few lines about anything you find interesting and post it. You can even link directly to breaking news.

Using Google Alerts is also a great way to monitor your competition. Simply enter your competitors name and wait for the alerts to show up. Your online alerts will keep you up to date on exactly what they are doing, be it a news story or a new posting to their BLOG.

And what about finding the time to write? While no one has yet figured out how to squeeze more hours out of a day, I can tell you that most people are under the erroneous assumption that you have to update your BLOG daily. This simply isn’t true. A good BLOG, depending on the subject, can be updated weekly, every two weeks or even monthly. Keep in mind, however, that writing about topical and timely happenings within your industry on a regular basis will quickly label you as an expert in your field! While that may take more frequent postings on your part, the advantage of being a recognized expert can’t be understated.

Like anything else, becoming a consistent BLOGGER is just a matter of doing it. Now that you have a great way of receiving an unlimited supply of topics to write about and know that it might not take as much time as you thought it would, get to your BLOG and start writing!

Press Contacts