Blogs and blogging are a force to be reckoned with online and seem to growing in importance every day. Here are some statistics courtesy of Technorati to back up this claim:
– More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002.
– 77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann.
– Approximately 50% of Bloggers are working on at least their second blog.
– 68% have been blogging for two years or more.
– 72% say they blog in order to share their expertise.
– 61% say they blog in order to supplement their income.
– 72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients.
– 56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry.
– 58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog.
These numbers alone show us that blogging is an integral part of life on the web and businesses on the Internet rely on them for many reasons. As a home based business owner online having your own blog can help you and your enterprise in many ways and this editorial will demonstrate how your blog can help turn your e-business into a success story.
One of the first things you should do after creating your home business website is build your blog. Of course your Internet journal should be related to your home page theme because ultimately you want your blog traffic to wind up on your business website because this is one of the primary functions or goals of your blog site. Any posts you write should be about your business and your products and should contain links which redirect your readers to your sales page and product offers.
A blog helps establish you as an expert in your particular field which helps you gain a reputation on the web as a respected business person. This respect will help you to establish relationships with your website visitors when they begin to contact you through your Internet journal to ask questions or to request help with a problem they may be having related t your topic or theme.
Relationship building is time well spent because people who feel as though they know and trust you and respect your opinion on different subjects are more likely to do business with you than with a perfect stranger.
As you may have heard from other Internet marketers online “the money is in the list.” In my opinion this adage rings more true today than it ever has. Email marketing is still a very lucrative way to make a living on the web and by having your own blog you have another way to effectively build your own targeted and responsive potential customer contact list.
By adding a squeeze page or landing page to your blog you can capture your readers contact information by offering a free gift in exchange for their name and email address. This so called freebie should be something of value to your visitors and related to the theme of your home business and of course to the topic of your Internet journal.
Because so many people online read blogs if you don’t have one you will be missing out on the opportunity to attract a vast targeted viewership to your home business via your blog site. By writing your articles about your business theme you will attract only people who have an interest in your topic and therefore who are only curious about what you’re selling. Therefore having a blog will increase the probability that your visitors will purchase your products.
Blogs and blogging are a vital component of any home based business opportunity online today and if you don’t take advantage of the opportunities offered by using this medium you may never realize your potential as a business person on the web.