Easyway Informer ENewsletter

Volume 2 - Issue 4

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In this Issue:

What Exactly is a Blog?
URL Check...is it everywhere you want to be?

Past Issues:

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What Exactly is a Blog?

We’ve all heard the word, but what exactly is a Blog? A blog (short for weblog) is an online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public reading. They contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases, blogs are used as daily diaries about people’s personal lives, political views or even as social commentaries. Blogs can however be shaped into whatever the author wants them to be.

Blogging allows people to tell the world what’s on their minds, to share their passions, or to simply inform them of current events. And it could be a great way to let your customer’s know what’s going on in your business.

In order to lure visitors back to your website, you must keep your content fresh and attractive. Blogs are a super way to accomplish this. Search engines crave content. By creating a blog every day or several times a week, you are constantly providing new content, thus increasing your search engine ratings.

How can Blogging help my business?

Use blogs on your site to:

Keep customers/clients up to date on changes to your website or product line.
Introduce new products.
Give opinions, advice and personal recommendations on specific products or services related to your field.
Provide supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your business that you want to showcase.
Optimize your search engine ratings and include links to your website. These equal backward links and will increase your ranking since Search Engines love text and content.

Blogs work best if they are done on a schedule. This lets your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. They will get in the habit of checking your site at constant intervals to see what you’ve added.

There are several online tools you can use to create a blog. It’s not much more complicated than typing an email. One of the most popular web-based tools is Blogger. This is a free service. (Read Blogger's explanation of What's a blog?) You can also choose a paid service such as Blogit. Most blog services are very user friendly, making it easy to maintain.

Once you set up your blog, you can attract new visitors by advertising. There are many directories that you can submit your blog to such as BlogWise. People frequently search these directories to see who is blogging on their subject.

Interested in a certain subject? Want to keep tabs on your competition? There are several free blog subscription sites that make it easy to keep up with your favorite blogs and news feeds. With Bloglines, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs, and they will monitor updates to those sites. You can read the latest entries easily within Bloglines. A couple of other good blog subscription sites are Yahoo and MSN.

A blog may be just what your business website needs to stay fresh and keep your customers coming back!

URL Check...is it everywhere you want to be?

On any given day, you can practically look around and discover an unlimited source of advertising avenues waiting for you to take ownership and include your web site address.

Some of you have actively investigated any available avenues in the media that "the other guy" is not taking full advantage of. For example, church bulletins, school functions, athletic events, or even local sports team/league sponsorship.

Others of you may be starting from scratch to advertise your website address on your business cards, post cards, flyers, mailers, and any other print materials.

It is important not to neglect the offline marketing of your website. Even the simplest of your business tools can be an advertisement for you. For example, do you have your website address on your voicemail greeting? If a prospective client calls you and wants info right away, you can still give them a resource even if they get your voicemail - your website. An example greeting might go something like this, "Hello, you've reached (Your Name), please leave a message and I will return your call. In the meantime, please visit my website at (Your Name) dot com."

And of course, who can forget your local newspaper? Don't assume that the popularity of the Internet is making this form of media fade into the distance. Even online, newspaper websites are among the highest ranked by major search engines and most used. Whether you advertise in the print version, online version, or both, you are placing an ad that is likely to be viewed by a large number of people.

Do you use any novelty promotional items such as pens, hats, sweaters, mouse pads, etc? Your website address should be prominently featured on all of these. Don't forget your professional 'must haves' like your name tag and sign riders...those need your URL too.

Got a car? Add your website address to your car with a back window sticker, license plate frame, or URL tag.

The point is you want the people in your community to come to you for information. You can't be everywhere at one time, but your website can. Don't forget to tell people how to get there! Make sure your URL really is everywhere YOU want to be.