According to Marketing Terms website: “A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person’s life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.”
“People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably the Blogger website. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process.”
Caslon Analytics website reports: “In July 2006 the Pew Internet & American Life Project estimated that the US blog population has grown to about 12 million American adults, some 8% of US adult internet users. The number of US blog readers was estimated as 57 million adults (39% of the US online population), although few of those people read widely or read often.”
Blogs have become one of the most popular means for ordinary people to make money online as home based business opportunities and here five reasons why:
1. Blogging made the possibility of creating and maintaining a website available to even the most technically challenged of us on the web. Websites such as WordPress make the web pages available free of charge and show people step-by-step how to create your blog and how to add content on a regular basis.
The simplicity of creating and updating a blog has allowed anyone and everyone who is interested in becoming an online blogger the opportunity to chronologically display their thoughts, their opinions and even their daily activities to the world. This ease of creation and entry into the World Wide Web spawned the idea that blogging could become an online money making opportunity.
2. The major search engines on the web, such as Google, love blogs and their content and this makes it a little easier to have your home business listed highly in search engine rankings. These high page rankings allow you to get your blog and your home business in front of thousands of potential customers on the Internet and it’s all free of charge.
The key to maintaining your search engine rankings is to update your website on a regular basis with fresh content. As any Internet marketer worth his or her salt will tell you “content drives traffic” and of course traffic drives sales and sales drive profits which will make your blog and your enterprise successful entities online.
3. Blogs and affiliate marketing seem to be made for each other. Affiliate marketing has become a financial boon for many home business owners on the web and by using your blog to promote other people’s products you can create a lucrative income from the comfort of your own home.
Simply by marketing your blog on the Internet and by placing advertisements for affiliate merchandise on your website you can collect a handsome commission from each sale you make when people click on your ads and agree to purchase your products.
4. Blogs allow your visitors to interact with you and your website by leaving comments. This provides the opportunity for creating relationships with your guests and potential customers. When people feel like they know and trust you and your home business they are more likely to become paying customers.
5. This relationship building opportunity presented by blogs opens the doors to other opportunities for both you and your guests. For example, you can swap links with your visitors by agreeing to place their website link on your blog if they will reciprocate. This is a great traffic generation technique.
Also, you may discover some of your guests are also Internet marketers and when you get to know them better you can suggest business alliances such as joint ventures to help promote each other’s business and help increase traffic and sales.
Blogs by their very nature are natural communication and relationship building tools which lead to many more opportunities for success for your home based business venture online.