The Power of the Blog
There has been a lot of hype over the last year or so about blogging. On one level blogging has been seen as the preserve of those who want to share their thoughts and dreams with the world.
On another level blogs have been seen as a chance for affiliate marketers to push their sponsors and, while there are some good affiliate marketing blogs out there, unfortunately there is also a huge amount of stinking garbage out there too.
There is also a third level where blogs are seen as being useful and that’s as a marketing tool for small business.
But despite all the hype, or perhaps because of all the hype, you may wonder just how effective blogs really are.
Well here is something that surprised even me. In a matter of hours on Friday a Tropical Cyclone developed off the coast of Queensland and by Saturday it was obvious that it was going to reach land. At that time it could have gone west and missed us completely or turned south-west and hit us.
So I made a post about it on Saturday in a local news blog that I run. Sunday morning I happened to be looking at the stats for the blog and found that in less than 24 hours Google had picked up that post and it was sending people to the story on my blog.
Through Sunday and yesterday I continued posting about it as it drew closer and developed into a Category 5 monster. By yesterday afternoon the number of people who were coming to my blog for the latest on the cyclone was incredible.
That’s how powerful and immediate blogs can be. You can build a website and Google won’t list it for 12 months or more. Build a blog and post relevant comments on it and Google will love you within 24 hours. MSN and Yahoo will do the same.
If you have an important message to get out about your small business then start blogging because people will begin to hear you.
