Blog advertising and business

I’ve been blogging casually since my days as a third-year college student. I think I had a total of four people who I knew read my blogs every day or at least once a week. Now, I’ve jumped on the whole Web 2.0 bandwagon and been more active in social networking. Some believe that sites like Twitter, which I enjoy for short updates, will take over blogging, but blogging really creates more personal expression. In business, it adds even more than what a simple micro-blogging site can do. If done correctly, blogging can be a powerful advertising tool.

Here’s what I think bloggers, specifically business and manager-level bloggers, need to do to effectively draw readers to their blog:

1. Fresh content. Bloggers should update their blogs three or more times a week for them to be truly effective and continuously attract visitors.
2. Personality. Most of the blogs I read give probably between 50 to 90 percent personal thoughts or ideas while the rest is dedicated to the facts of what they’re talking about.
3. Accuracy. Giving accurate information—bonus points for providing a hyperlink that opens in a new browser window or tab—is key in making a blog credible and worth following.
4. Clean content. Blogs don’t necessarily need superb grammar, but they have to be readable. Using spell check can never hurt.

For people to visit a blog that contains these four fundamentals, the blogger needs to invest some time in blog advertising. This can be done in a variety of ways online, such as through social networks, search engine optimization (SEO), and e-mail signatures. Another good way to promote a blog is to frequently leave comments on newsgroups, forums, and articles. Tons of people read comments, so that’s a sure-fire way to attract a new audience.