Sunday 16 September 2007

Blogging 101

Editorial: Blogging 101
By Derek Gehl

Derek These days, blogging has become a staple part of many online businesses. Yet I still get regular questions from my students and Internet Entrepreneur Club members asking, "why do I need a blog?"

At first glance, a blog is really just an online journal that displays a series of posts, displayed in chronological order. These posts are typically written in a conversational, informal tone, and don't contain any overt advertising messages.

So if you sell widgets on the Internet, why the heck do you need a blog? What value is it going to add to your business, aside from being one more thing to put on your "to-do" list?

Let me answer that for you! Here are the two main reasons you need to have a blog as part of your online business:

Reason #1: Blogs add personality to your business!

The Internet is an extremely impersonal business medium, and any opportunity you get to give your business some personality will increase your sales.

Fact: People like to buy products from people (not machines!).

If you use a blog to give your business a "voice," your customers will get a better sense of who the guy or gal behind the business really is. That'll help you build a stronger relationship with your customers -- and that will improve your sales!

Just remember: Your blog should not be written in fancy business lingo! It should be extremely conversational and personal.

Your readers should feel as if you're speaking directly to them -- sharing personal stories, useful tidbits of information, your thoughts on new developments in the industry -- whatever your readers will find useful and informative.

Also, your blog posts don't have to be long articles! In fact, you'll be better off if they're not. Most popular bloggers keep their posts to 400-500 words maximum, and many of their posts are often much shorter.

Reason #2: Blogs help you get listed in Google quickly!

The 'Net's top search engines love sites that have new, original content being added on a regular basis -- and that means they LOVE blogs.

We have run numerous tests with different blogs in different industries -- and time and time again, we've found that a properly optimized blog post can show up in Google's top 10 listings in less than 10 days!

For examples of these tests, please go to:

Internet marketing research lab

Personally, I jump on every opportunity I come across to capitalize on free traffic from Google. You should, too. And right now, blog are one of the easiest ways to legitimately explode your free traffic numbers.

Of course, I have only scratched the surface of blogging here. In order to create a truly effective "e-commerce" blog, you need to understand the finer details of setting up your blog and optimizing it for the search engines.

That's why we created the definitive guide to building a blog that does the best job of building a strong relationship with your customers and driving tons of prequalified visitors to your salespage. For more info on this guide, click here now!

And remember, if you ever have any questions never hesitate to send us an email or give us a call. We are here to help you succeed!

All the best...

Derek Gehl
your guide to Internet success ;-)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit:

Internet marketing research lab
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