Saturday, August 2, 2008

How To Make Your Website Work For You, Part 5

Expand your websites influence by the use of a blog. This is a great way to increase the content of your site even when the blog is not actually on your site. For example this blog is on www.blogger.com and our website is www.upwardtrend.org. These are hosted in completely different places, but there is a link to each other in both locations. In addition, the content of the blog is directly related to the subject material of the website. Blogs are also found in search engines from the content, so blogs can help you get found that way as well. Blogs are generally just content, so that is even more helpful for the searches.

Writing a blog can be fun and interesting. It will probably work best for you to use your expertise to talk about your experience, your thoughts and ideas as they relate to that expertise. My experience is in sales, marketing and merchandising as well as using tools such as websites, blogs and newsletters, so it makes sense that these are the things that I have a lot of knowledge of and would write about. This is my second daily blog. The first is here: CTS which was started several months ago. My goal is an article a day in both blogs, but you can choose your own goal. Maybe it is an article a week or two a month or something like that. I see many blogs that have about 5 or 6 entries a month. You'll know what is right for you. It just needs to be fun and interesting for you or it is likely it will not get done.

If you are a plumber and want to expand the influence of your website, write a blog about plumbing. There must be a wealth of stories, insights, plumbing problems and solutions to write about. Maybe you are a general contractor and you have all kinds of tips for people to work with contractors better. Perhaps you have a shop where you sell unique products and could talk about those products. You could be a dentist and we all know there is a lot to talk about there. If you are a physical therapist, there is a wealth of information that could be of value to many including how to choose a good physical therapist. Whatever field you are in, there is much you had to learn to become proficient at it and all of that information can be of value to many others.

You can write as often as you like. The more often you write, the more content, the more value. You can then offer to send it via email as I do with this blog and develop a following of people who enjoy your articles. That makes it more fun as well. It's always great to find other people getting value and learning from your efforts.

If you aren't into writing much, you can dictate to a recorder and have an employee write it for you. There are even programs that you can talk into and it will type it out for you. There is always a way if you see the value in doing a thing. Think of all the information that you have gathered over the years and how you can help other people avoid the pain of making mistakes that you've already made and learn a better way of doing a thing. It may be as simple and powerful as an idea whose time has come and you have just inspired someone to reach for something. You just never know who you will touch and how it will affect them. There is so much knowledge in the heads of people in business and the web is a great place to share that information. That is powerful. It is of value to so many all over the world.

Make your website work for you by expanding its influence through the use of a blog that is included in your website, or linked to it. It is fun and is a great way to expand. Go for it.

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