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Blogs - Diamond in the Rough for your Marketing? 
By Richard Zwicky  

Blogs are a potential goldmine of insights for readers, provided 
by business leaders, market leaders, innovators, philosophers, 
marketers, political commentators, and many other opinion 
makers who never before have enjoyed such easy access to a 
simple and unmoderated public forum in which to share their 
opinions, ideas and insights.  

These leaders have taken to using the Internet to publish 
their thoughts for the same reason they make public speaking 
appearances; to build credibility for themselves and for their 
company, and to become recognized as a resource, usually with 
the expectation that it will lead to sales. Blogging presents 
them with an easy, non-time consuming, and inexpensive way to 
quickly reach thousands of interested parties all around the 
world.  

The effect that these leaders have had in posting their thoughts 
and musings online has helped evolve blogs into powerful viral 
marketing tools. Blogs allow you to quickly and easily reach 
people who are not in your direct network, and greatly expand 
the number of people you and your company reach. 

Are you an expert in your field? Do you know things about your 
favorite subject that you would like to share with others? Do 
you write articles for newsletters, like this one, and want to 
help the publisher expand their reach? Then blogging may be 
right for you.  

Have you never looked at a blog? Are you sure? A lot of articles 
and content on web sites is currently blogged. But if you are 
looking to see what a blog is, here are some interesting ones to 
look at.  

http://blogs.sun.com/roller/      
http://www.semanticblogging.org/blojsom-hp/blog/default/      
http://www.blogherald.com/archives/000133.html  

If you want to start your own, and your company doesn't offer 
one, try these tools, and link to them from your site: 

http://blogger.com
http://blog.blogware.com/blog

While sometimes you can find blogs that are interesting, some of 
them simply are not. This happens when the author / contributor 
either has nothing of interest to say, or has nothing to add to 
the facts they are recording.   

However, blogs that are maintained for extended periods are 
usually filled with interesting and often humorous commentaries. 
That's to be expected; the person blogging is enjoying seeing 
the world, and allowing you to share in their vision; it 
reflects a joy for living.  

So how are blogs a diamond in the rough, ready to be polished 
and turned into a gem, capping a marketing goldmine?   

You might be surprised, but many people have found ways to make 
money off their blogs, just by making sure it's up to date, 
interesting and relevant.   

Just like any other web site, blogs allow for traditional 
Internet revenue streams such as affiliate programs and banner 
advertising, etc... Now, I don't know that you can add a Google 
adsense banner or any other banner for that matter to your blog 
if it's third party, but if you are hosting your own, the 
possibilities are enormous. But that's just one way to earn 
money from a blog. The best way, is to have it lead to new sales 
for you and your business.  

But for any of these monetary systems to work, you need people 
to find your blog first.    

How Visitors Find Your Blog i.e. How You Can Make Money Off a Blog  

As you are building your blog, you need to be conscious of other 
web sites, and blogs. Remember, yours is not alone. If you read 
something interesting somewhere then "blog it." In more 
traditional terms, just link to it. Link to a lot of other blogs 
and news sites. The people who run blogs, also tend to read their 
own web site traffic reports, and will notice the traffic your 
blogs are sending. They will read your blog, and if they find it 
interesting, they will blog it. If you see a news story in 
another blog, link to it as your link to the article.  

Some people maintain a list of their favorite blogs within their 
own blog. It helps paint a picture of what the author finds 
interesting, and also helps your blog gain goodwill from other 
blogs.  

When I first created my blog, one thing I did was submit it to a 
bunch of blog search engines. I used:  

Blog Search Engine (http://www.blogsearchengine.com)
Daypop (http://www.daypop.com)      
Blog Catalog (http://www.blogcatalog.com/)
Feedster (http://www.feedster.com)
Ice Rocket (http://www.icerocket.com)
Bloogz (http://www.bloogz.com)
blogstreet (http://www.blogstreet.com)     
Blogwise (http://www.blogwise.com)

Some of these tools crawl the blogs hourly - so your content 
will get out there quickly. Others take longer; just like the 
mainstream search engines!  

Many independent blog tools, automatically offer RSS/XML feeds 
of your blog. You just need to ensure that they are turned on. 
They make it easy for you to get syndicated.   

I saw a note recently that there are now over 4 million blogs 
around the world with a new blog being added every 10 seconds or 
so. By comparison, there are 10 million new web pages being 
added to the Internet daily - or 116 a second. This means that 
blogspace is less crowded than the rest of the Internet.   

So, what are the disadvantages to building and maintaining a 
blog? Well, they vary from individual to individual, and company 
to company. But here are my thoughts:              

1) You need to contribute regularly. I notice some people make 
updates many times a day. That's wonderful, but it's also a 
time commitment.  
    
2) You better have something relevant to say. If you don't keep 
it interesting, people will not keep coming back for more!      

3) Does the person writing your company blogs have good writing 
skills? Are you happy with the quality of grammar and vocabulary? 
     
4) Are you, or is the person writing the blog for your company, 
representative of the company's perspectives? Do they enunciate 
a coherent vision of, and for, your company? That's a risk you 
take when you assign a blog to someone else. If it's your own 
blog, are you the right person for the job?     

5) Does the blog offer a valuable perspective, or just some 
ramblings? 

In the end, the value proposition in a blog is the same as in 
any other content you or your company publishes.  Is the content 
valuable?  Is the information worthwhile?  If not, if you have 
nothing to say, or add to a conversation, don't speak.  Do you 
enjoy the company of people who just speak to hear themselves? 
Probably not.  If a blog leaves you with that same feeling, then 
it's probably not going to be successful.   

But, if you consistently maintain an interesting blog, people 
will recognize it, and you. That's where the real value 
proposition, and the opportunity to make money off a blog lies. 
The real value in blogs is in getting your word out. If you have 
something meaningful to say, and the better you do it, the more 
likely someone is to reference your blog, and eventually your 
corporation's web site. This will lead to increased sales. Just 
don't expect it to happen overnight.  

I would highly recommend that you have some sort of publishing 
strategy for your business. Whether it ends up being a blog, or 
writing newsletter articles as I have done here, sharing good, 
coherent information with interested parties will help you and 
your business build credibility. Publishing will go a long way 
towards building your professional reputation, one word at a 
time. 

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Richard Zwicky is a founder and CEO of Metamend Software and 
Design Ltd. (www.metamend.com) Metamend's cutting edge Search 
Engine Optimization (SEO) technology and software has been 
recognized globally as a leader in its field. With successful 
clients on 5 continents, and over 50 countries worldwide, the 
company has experience in a broad range of markets and 
marketplaces. Metamend's client web sites rank near or at the 
top of the search engines for their respective search terms.  
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