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By Leo Emery
Once you have designed your website your biggest challenge is getting it noticed. And even more so
getting it noticed by targeted visitors.
There are many different ways to drive traffic to a website such as; Pay Per Click. Ezine
Advertising, Classified Ads and Banner Advertising just to name a few.
All ways that are fine, however all take money. Unfortunately, many people who start online are on
a very limited budget so they need to make every marketing dollar count.
And what better way to get traffic then not spending a dime to get it? All you need to do is invest
some constant effort and time, to things many people have plenty of.
So what is this holy grail of free traffic? It's blogging.
It boils down to content, content is king we hear it repeatedly. People want it and the search
engine spiders want it. So give the people and the spiders what they want...CONTENT!!
And the best way to do that is with an active blog posting fresh relevant content on a regular
basis.
Many blogs look just like websites but unlike a static website blogs are alive and interactive.
Blog templates come with everything you need to create a beautiful site and can become your
strongest competitive advantage online.
You see with a blog you have your RSS feed which people can subscribe to, people can leave comments
(that's the interactive part), you are creating a massive resource of content each time you post
and you will (that's if your providing great content) build a large following, plus the search
engines will love you.
You can even build a mailing base by giving away valuable information/products or services in
return for a persons name and email address.
Unlike a website where it is in your face selling, blogging is relationship marketing. And this is
the best marketing, you're building that trust factor and that is one of your competitive
advantages.
There are two blogging programs available Blogger, which is owned by Google and Wordpress an open
source program.
I have used both and in my opinion, I consider Blogger for people just starting out. It is very
easy to use and is a point and click platform but limited. Where as Wordpress again in my opinion
is for the intermediate and advanced user.
With blogger, you do have the choice of hosting your blog on their server or on you own server. The
choice is yours; personally, I would host it on my own server. Why?
Everything is yours, when you use Bloggers server everything you do is Blogger's. When you host on
your own server you have full control over your domain name, how the website works, where the
traffic goes, and so on.
In addition, the other advantage is you have control over your blog through the control panel of
your hosting account, which does give you more bandwidth, email accounts and so on.
Now personally I use Wordpress, it is far in a way superior to Blogger in my opinion. You have to
host it on your server. It is completely open source. Meaning you can pretty much do whatever you
want to your Wordpress blog.
Type in "Free Wordpress Templates" and you will get 1000's of free templates you can use.
Alternatively, if you like you can buy a template or even get one designed for you special. The
choice is yours; the sky is the limit when it comes to Wordpress.
Ok what are the advantages?
The biggest is constant fresh relevant content posted by you. The search engines love this and so
do people. Wordpress and Blogger both ping (notify) the blogging community when you post new
content. Sites such as Technorati.com and Weblogs.com. These are huge blog directories that get
spidered many times per day. Plus they tap into programs like Pin-O-Matic.
Plus anyone subscribed to your RSS feed will be notified of new content. And that brings people to
your blog.
Another competitive advantage you can have is your blog can receive more attention then other blogs
within the same niche. You can become the authority within your niche and in turn, that will result
in traffic and profits.
If you do have a static website still get a blog, you can link your blog to your website and thus
improving the standing of your website within the search engine rankings.
Anytime you post you can also have links back to the static pages of your website, which can
provide more information, or be a sales page promoting a product or service. On your blog you can
have advertising for your products/services or anything else for that matter.
Another competitive advantage is the resources you can provide on your blog. Not only static
recourses but timely ones within your postings.
The next competitive advantage is brand or your reputation to put it another way. Believe it or
not, your blog will have brand equity which you want to develop. Someone is more likely to listen
to what is said on CNN just like someone is more likely to listen to what is said on
lifehacker.com. so make sure you build your brand.
Blogs are taking over traditional website because of these competitive advantages plus a blog has
clean code, is designed for content, are automatically formatted, and guess who loves that? Google.
You see every new post is a brand new page, and google likes to keep separate pages in it's
directory and it likes to keep them in the same place.
And here's a term I have learnt "Permalinks" Permalinks make it really easy to link between blogs
to specific posts instead of just a meaningless main page. Also, these regular linkings are seen
favorably by google.
So weather you have a website or not I highly recommend you start a blog, it will do you nothing
but good.
Just remember two things when blogging; you are creating this blog to share you ideas and to share
valuable information. If you use it as a constant sale letter you will fail miserably, I can
guarantee that.
And two...have fun!!
To start blogging you can either go to www.Blogger.com
or to www.wordpress.org
To Your Success
Leo Emery
Leo Emery has been earning a full time living online for over 5 years and is a member of one of
the most respected Money Making Mentoring And Coaching Clubs on the Internet. If you're eager to
discover how simple it is to earn a six figure income online visit http://www.netwisewealth.com
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