Blogs

The word “blog” is a shortened form of the phrase “web log.” A blog is a website that uses an array of time-stamped and categorized “posts”, generally placed in date order, to allow users to read a wide variety of articles and other informational posts. Most Internet users are probably already familiar with many blogs already, or have at least heard about them. Google’s official blog is a free blog maintained by a free blogging site called Blogger, owned by Google, and is one of the most-read blogs on the Web. Clearly, just because a blog is simple and free to create doesn’t mean that blog can’t generate visitors.

Commercial blogs have also begun to drive traffic recently. Some companies use blogs to generate word-of-mouth marketing or so-called “buzz marketing” for a particular product or product line. Some companies have official blogs where they can post pictures, press releases, and news updates about their company. Google is one example of a company that has such a following that people will visit their official blog in droves just to read about what the company is up to these days.

Blogging contains a lot of marketing potential. Popular blogs that aren’t on free sites can post ads on their blog in order to generate revenue, and this is a popular technique for affiliate marketers to drive traffic. Blogs can also market specific products and contribute links for the purpose of increasing page rank. Since blogs are so dependent on content and the most-viewed blogs online are quite rich with good content, producing a blog that has good content is essential to success. This, of course, requires some time, effort, and possibly money. In the end, though, blogs can be a great way to gain exposure.