The Power of the Blog
by Matt Bacak
Published on this site: July 11th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Can a Blog earn you a prison sentence? Ask Mojtaba Saminejad.
He is an Iranian whose Blog, published in the Farsi language,
earned him a two-year prison sentence in June 2005.
The online community is fast waking up to the power of blogs
which have spread across the internet like wild fire. If you
are still grappling with the word BLOG, these are online websites
which are diary-like in approach and people are free to publish
news or their ideas and thoughts. Blogs are very popular as
they are simple to use and in most cases, free.
However, professional bloggers (people who have a decent
no. of hours of blogging to their credit) will admit that
blogging is not as easy as waking up in the morning, checking
out some posts and putting together a few witty lines before
you brush your teeth. You do need to be knowledgeable about
the subject you are writing on or you are likely to be torn
apart by people who are.
Having a Blog has its own set of inherent advantages which
are obvious and some which are not so obvious. The better
known advantages are:
Freedom to express: If you like to build a chain of communication
and use that as food for thought and for your existence, a
BLOG is the best way to create this outlet. You can express
your opinion openly and you just might be surprised by the
number of people who would agree with you. Such communication
channels also help build momentum for a particular line of
thought.
Networking at its best: If you own a blog which has genuine
exchange of ideas it can evolve onto a good platform to network
and grow your business. It is easier to impress potential
customers with a strong and valid point of view rather than
a price quote.
Excellent advertising platform: The sheer size of community
generated at a popular blog provides an excellent advertising
platform for advertisers. With the hunger for new advertising
platforms which is both innovative and cost effective, blogs
seems like the next location for the big bucks of advertisers.
Gauging public opinion on products and services: Bloggers
post comments at a fiery pace. It is not uncommon to see a
couple of comments posted within a few minutes of the original
post. The topic and title of the blog needs to be alluring
enough to get such quick responses. Blogs thus become an excellent
forum to gauge public opinion on products and services and
even political and business events.
Useful tool for inter-company communication without the red
tape: IBM recently started a blog for its employees on the
intranet. Reason? Simple, to get employees interacting with
each other and building up a knowledge based community for
putting together new ideas as well as provide good human resource
practices. More and more companies are ignoring the naysayers
for blogs and going ahead with using this tool for fostering
better employee relations within the company. The knowledge
sharing is also excellent and HR personnel can monitor comments
to get an idea about new policies or identify troublesome
issues head on and well in advance.
Other benefits which are worth mentioning if you own a blog
is search engine optimization due to the high volume of content
featured here, updating yourself on the latest trend in the
marketplace which subsequently helps you identify new opportunities
which helps you stay ahead and allows you to be tech-savvy
in your social and professional circle. The benefits outlined
above should be enough to inspire you to start a blog at the
earliest!
Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author"
in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s
e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts
into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash
The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak's Promoting
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