12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog
"Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It" This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12
reasons you should blog. Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and
running and THEN come back and read this :) #1 - You Do Not Need To Know HTML One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to
design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog
software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World
Wide Web for anyone to see. #2 - You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary
every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often.
And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers -
and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their*
clients with valuable resources. #3 - Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful
tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of
search engine optimization. All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are
keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating
through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds
of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'. #4 - You Get A Built-In Linking Structure With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated
network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get
'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it. Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your
freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers
look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you
spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap! #5 - You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your
archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content,
each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up
having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed
content! #6 - You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do
it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing
benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title,
description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles,
and category names. #7 - You Create An Online Community If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an
online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or
membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite
reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you
don't write a lot! #8 - You Initiate Conversations With Readers Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it
with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction.
Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or
theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner. #9 - Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of
such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it
possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback
will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources. #10 - You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many
more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most
blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for
your blog posts. #11 - You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a
subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By
sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured,
intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way
only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be. #12 - You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together?
Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they
are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what
they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU! Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but
sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs
you nothing! Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you
trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised. Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit
From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" -
http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has
been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001.
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