“Blogging” For Future Pleasure And Profit
Unless you’ve had a rock in the past year, you’ve heard the term “blog” once or twice.
For most people, a “blog” is simply a glorified online “diary” where geeks, geeks, and lonely teenagers record their thoughts in cyberspace.
What many people don’t realize that “blogs”
What many people don’t realize, however, is that “blogs” are revolutionizing the way businesses and customers interact across everything from existing products to new ideas and customer service improvements.
In short, “blog” style communication has come of age, and anyone with an online business had better sit up and take a quick look!
At first, a “blog” was basically an online diary to record your thoughts; But “blogs” have evolved into dynamic websites that even non-technical people can instantly update without an HTML editor or FTP program.
Blogs allow their authors to make instant website updates from any computer anywhere in the world with a web browser and an internet connection.
Blogs also allow readers to respond to authors’ posts, provide additional information, links, expanded opinions, and more. In short, an active “blog” creates an interactive community with the author as the hub and the readers as the spokes of the wheel that keeps the whole cycle turning. Unlike traditional “static” websites, where content rarely (if ever) changes, active blogs thrive in a state of constant, never-ending updating.
Online businesses are reinventing a principle
With blogs, savvy online businesses are reinventing a principle that small corner shops have embraced for years: know your customers and stay in tune with their wants, needs, and desires. Big companies throw billions of dollars into black holes every year to literally “guess” what people are buying. Most call it the “marketing department“.
On the other hand, savvy online businesses understand that blogging allows you to take the guesswork out of what’s on your customers’ minds and gives them an active, timely means of telling you exactly what they like and don’t like about your business. Services, products and almost every other aspect of the market.
This lightning-fast communication allows smaller companies to literally take large market shares from more traditional companies. Blogging also has a distinct advantage over traditional email newsletters, as subscribers can receive updates without having to receive email messages. The power of RSS (Real Simple Syndication) allows subscribers to be notified of updated content via RSS newsreaders. Bottom Line: Publishing a blog with an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to means your content will NEVER be blocked by SPAM filters.
Basically Blogging software
Blogging software basically comes in two flavors: hosted and standalone. Hosted blogging solutions make it very easy to set up a blog, often in just a few minutes. If you know how to write, you can start a blog. Sign up for Blogger.com and you can create a free blog and start posting in just minutes. Blogger.com (owned by search giant Google) will even host your blog on their servers.
Typepad.com, which costs just $4.95 per month, is also an excellent hosted service that offers additional features to get your own blog up and running right away. The alternative is standalone blogging software that gets installed on your own website. A very popular solution is Moveable Type, available from moveabletype.org, which offers an extremely versatile and powerful suite of tools for creating full-featured blogs that rival any major company in the world.