A Blog (also known as Weblog) is traditionally a webpage where pre-surfer or
a blogger “logs” all pages he/she finds interesting. In other words, it is a Web
page that contains brief, chronologically arranged items of information.
Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the
author.
Weblogs provide a series of annotated links to items such as news
stories, and often include personal rants. They are maintained by one person,
most commonly someone who is involved in Web design or some other tech-related
field.
A blog is often a mixture of what is happening on a particular
website and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site,
although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. Blogs can
be used to introduce products to potential customers.
People maintained
blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the
introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at
blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and
accelerate the publishing process.
Blog as a marketing
tool:
Blogs offer huge marketing potential. They are highly strategic tools that
can strengthen relationships, share knowledge, increase collaboration, and
improve branding. Besides, blogs can represent the real voice of the
website.
A weblog can take the form of a diary, a news service (or
summaries of and links to current news items on a topic), a collection of links
to other Web sites, a series of book reviews or products, reports of activity on
a project, the journal of an expedition, and much more. Businesses can use this
tool to effectively advertise their products or services.
One of the most
interesting ways to use a weblog is by allowing it to function as a discussion
forum for customers of your products or services. In this case, the webmaster
can give posting rights to other people – visitors and customers, and their
posts may or may not be reviewed before they are published to the Web page.
Customers, in such a way can post favorable comments about the websites
offerings. Some weblogs are set up in such a way that only the owner or the
owner and certain other people have posting rights, but anyone else can add
comments to the posts.
Weblogs when used with newsletters present
immense marketing opportunities:
- Articles within newsletters
can be linked to a blog, extending life and creating a massive
conversation.
- You can offer a bidirectional forum to customers to get
true, personal opinions on your products and services.
- Company experts
can start a blog and become industry experts, helping your company edge out
competition and, through this interactive forum, draw customers into another
exchange of information and thoughts.
- The beauty of this interplay is
you can layer your blog with editorial controls.
How to create a
Weblog?
The majority of weblogs are now created using software
or services designed specifically for this purpose. Some of the software is free
- and some of the organizations that provide weblog software will also provide
free server space to house a weblog so that it is publicly accessible on the
Internet.
There are also commercial versions of some of the free
software; these commercial versions often provide more features. Some weblog
software is available only as commercial software. Alternatively, bloggers can
create and maintain their weblog using free software or a free weblog service,
but use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to load the resulting weblog to their own
Website.
There are many blogging softwares available easily on the
Internet. One of the most popular weblogger is “Blogger” which can be used for
free at blogger.com. Most webloggers simplify the process of Website creation.
However, they do require basic knowledge of FTP, Website structures and a few
technical terms. Besides, creating an advanced weblog requires knowledge of
HTML.
So get out there and start your own Blog…it’s free, easy and can
work seamlessly with the rest of your website or newsletter.
About the Author
Get your
free step by step guide to setting up your first blog. http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com
