Is there really a compelling reason to start a blog when you could be spending your time working on your website? Is a blog really as effective a marketing tool as a traditional website? It all depends.
Whether or not you
should start your own blog depends largely on the use to which your blog will be
put. Many bloggers are blogging for strictly social reasons; others use their
blogs for productive purposes, and some bloggers manage to combine socializingand being productive in a single blog.
If your intention
in starting a blog is to socialize, you will be most successful by creating
your blog on one of the high-traffic social networking sites like MySpace and
opening it up for comments so that you can begin a dialogue with your readers.
If you want a
productive blog, on the other hand, asking yourself why you should start your
own blog takes on added importance because anyone maintaining a productive
blog will have to make a commitment of time if he or she expects the blog to
succeed.
If you are
considering a productive blog, you would do well to steer clear of the social
networking arena and set yourself up on one of the blog hosting sites like
WordPress or Blogger. When you have your blog up and running, you'll no longer
need to ask yourself Why start your own blog when you have an existing website?
One time-consuming
aspect of maintaining a blog is that monitoring the comments posted by your blog's readers. While those fresh contents can keep your blog on the search
engines' radar, you could end up with some less than desirable blog posts and
even get caught in the middle of battles between your viewers.
Blog comments are
also often abused by spammers who simply want to plug their own websites,
blogs, or pet causes. And if you have to spend a great amount of time
refereeing warring readers, you'll have that much less time to attend to the
marketing aspects of your blog.
If you think you
can manage it, create a blog which allows you to interact socially with your
readers at the same time you are using it to increase your productivity. Why?
If you want to run
with the big dogs in your industry, you will have to find some way of
communicating to them that you are ready to do so. Being available to answer
their questions on your blog is one way.
If you have a
firmly held, defensible, but generally discounted belief regarding your
products, leave a few challenging comments on related blogs, with links to your
blog so that those who are interested can drop by to argue your point. When
they arrive at your blog, lure them to your sales page.
Why start a blog
when you already have a website? To socialize, to become more productive, or to
become more productive by socializing. Blogs simply function in ways that
websites were never meant to!
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