Marketing and Blogging

People thought blogging was or is a fad. And that may be. But this fad does help you in your marketing.

Blogging is content rich, and if you are not aware, anything that is rich in content is, in most cases, devoured by the search engines. That can place your blog in the top 10 of the search engines.

Some people procrastinate, some people have a fear of writing, fear that you will not have the info to keep people interested, or some people think it is time consuming. But if you put it in a different perspective -- it can get you to your target market quickly, and thus, additional income.



Blogging - Benefits and Drawbacks
By Vickie J Scanlon

Blogging has it's pluses and minuses. But in truth, the benefits do out way the drawbacks. You may be one of many people who have put up excuses not to blog -is it procrastination or a number of miscues or beliefs. Let's see.


Blogging Drawbacks -- Preceived or otherwise

For many, the biggest blogging drawback, it the commitment of time. Depending on your blog, you may need to write frequent posts. And to make the posts relevant and content rich takes time.

However, if you have other things going on with your business - you do have to manage your time appropriately to get quality information out to your readers. But -- it is time well spent. You'll soon find how good of a marketing tool a blog can be. Why do I say that? Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines are always looking for quality content. And, a blog is content rich. If you give the readers good material and the search engines what they want, you will see quality, targeted traffic.

For those who don't like to write, this may be the biggest hurdle. But what is nice about a blog is that it is informal. If you supply people with the information that want and need they will come.


Blogging Benefits
Blogging can reap many benefits, if you think outside the box. For example:

1) Adsense Advertising and with additional complimentary advertising allowed by Google you can make money with your blog. Not only are you drawing your target market to your blog with your content, you can have another avenue to making a secondary income.

2) Businesses-quality product information about a product, or it's add-ons can help a customer decide to buy or not to buy a product.

3) Customers or target market contact. This is a great way to introduce yourself to your target market and let them know what you are all about. This communication tool allows you to not only stay in touch with customer, but with prospective customers in a non-abrasive way -- allowing them to take a closer look at your business, service, product or information.

Granted, blogging takes time. But the benefits, I feel, out way the pain you may feel at writing. What benefits, search engine exposure -- in most cases, you'll see your blog at the top of the search engines before your website. Why? Content.

If you choose quality content over quantity content you will see additional benefits for your efforts. Such as: 1) increased creditability and expertise in your area 2) the distribution of your blogs to search engines. 3) increased traffic.


Blog exposure
To get your blog out to the masses, think about setting up your blog with Ping-o-matic. Ping-o-matic will get the exposure you want for your blog by hitting numerous feeds after each update. And, its free.


Blogging can have its problems, as with anything. Such as:

1) People leaving negative comments. But if you look at some of the top affiliate marketers, or even good ecommerce sites, you can see where a negative can be turned into a positive. How? For ecommerce sites,its a great way to tell the person to contact a certain email and they will follow up. Can you see the benefits? If you have a public relations issue, use your blog to state your case.

2) People just using your blog as a vehicle to advertise, without a true comment. That is easily taken care of - through your blog dashboard, set the control for reviewing of comments before allowing it on your blog. This helps to eliminate spammers.

As you can see blogging does have it's pluses and minuses. But what is the key to blogging-writing. Stop the procrastination, the mental excuses of why you shouldn't do it and try it as another avenue in your marketing mix. As you know, you should have more than one avenue in your marketing portfolio. If you don't, you're could be missing out on valuable traffic.

About the Author:
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: My Affiliate Place for tools, ways to promote your blog or website, accessories, software, computers and more.