Blogging and marketing

Article from December, 10th, 2003.

What is blogging? Blogs stand short for web logs - regularly posted thoughts on… well, anything. There currently are over 2 million blogs. Most blogs are "today I did this and this, and this is how I feel about these issues, and I am so unique and special" type of thing. That is why in the beginning most media experts viewed blogs as a hobby.

But when Google got into this business, everybody understood that it is a serious business (and one of the few profitable on the Internet). If you never read a blog, simply enter "blog" in Google and look through a few. Here is something that might surprise you. B2B blogs (business to business web logs) is currently one of the fastest growing fields that is expected by some to deliver tremendous returns in the nearest future. What are business blogs about? Check out www.weblogsinc.com and you will find out that there are blogs about virtually any business - computers, software, spam, telemedicine, RSS, investing, etc.

In fact, Jupiter media encourages their analysts each to have a blog. Why? Because it is a great way of marketing and attracting new customers. Blogs are updated daily in most cases (sometimes more or less often). Blogs are informal. Blogs are informative. And you don't have to sign up for or unsubscribe from blogs. Yes, this is the weakest point in e-mail marketing and can compensate for it with your own blog.

Need a few ideas how blogs can help you? How about "giving away" part of your website to bloggers. This is a great solution for travel agencies. People don't trust salesman and saleswomen. But they trust strangers if they appear to be regular folks just like them. If you sell trips to exotic countries, let your clients post their thoughts and experiences about countries they've been to. You can also keep your own blog. This is perfect for the industries that sell services rather then goods. If you are a real estate agent in Sacramento, California, how about !

Publishing "Investing in real estate in greater Sacramento Area" blog or "Affordable housing in downtown Sacramento"? You will be surprised by the amount of phone calls you will start receiving after people start reading your blog.

Relevant links:

    • Mass mailing software
    • E-mail extracting software
    • Browser plug-in to extract contact information automatically


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