Maybe you have just read something about how Blogs can help you establish a web presence, but you are not sure how to start. Here is a guide and a few tips to get you started and increase your Internet traffic. Blogs can help any business, but they require research, maintenance, and creative writing skills.



Firstly, decide if a Blog is right for you by visiting

Blogs. Go to Blogger, then use the search Blogs function. When you arrive at Blog Search beta, enter keywords related to your particular business niche. You must have passion about your specific niche in order to keep posting about it.

A tour of Blogs will open your mind to the number of different conversations about your niche and the variety of approaches to Blogs. You will notice that some Blogs have many posts about a specific subject. These ?Bloggers? are excited about their subject and that is why they attract traffic. Some Blogs run like an open diary, and at this time, most don't have anything to do with business or marketing.

The constant posting and reciprocal linking between Blogs are just two of many reasons why Blogs are successful ?traffic magnets.? If you are in business, ou may elect to have a Blog similar to those on Blogger or you might have a web host that already has this feature with your web site package. The Blog attached to a business website is really more of a ?Corporate Blog? concept, but you can use this approach as a tool to draw much more traffic to your current web site.

You should discuss your options with all interested parties, your web master, and web designer. You don't have to have an outside web designer or web master in order to start a Blog, but if you already have people in place, why not get an informed opinion.

Let us assume that you have chosen a path at this point. Gather any past articles that you have written about your business, modify them for keyword content, and start posting. The more often you post, the better it will be, and posting daily is optimum.

When you post articles, include the URL of your Blog. You might want to add a signature similar to this.

FREE (Your Business Niche) Report.

FREE (Your Business Niche) Newsletter.

Visit: (Your Blog)

FREE CONTENT: If you are a web master, blogger, e-zine, or Internet publisher, and can use quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles) ? Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, and please include the resources in the above paragraph. Thank you, (Your Name).

Every time someone posts one of your articles with your resource box, that's one more link back to your Blog. If your articles or Blog entries are perceived as valuable, you are creating more traffic for yourself. Most of the web sites that post your articles will be from the same or a related niche. These become valuable links because their readers are already interested in your article topics.

You should also include your Blog URL at the bottom of all your Emails as a standard part of your signature with your name, address, telephone number, and other contact information. If you have room on your business card and stationary, please make room for your Blog URL.

Lastly, a content rich Blog is a great compliment to any Email marketing campaign. Unfortunately, reaching interested prospects and customers by Email is not what it used to be. Over aggressive spam filters throw out a good percentage of legitimate Email, but an interesting Blog will keep your customers and prospects coming back for more.

? Copyright 2005 ? Paul Jerard / Aura Publications