Blog or Ezine? Top 7 Reasons to Blog Now!

Many of my small business clients ask me: "What is a blog and do I need one?" As a marketing consultant and business coach, I too had to address those questions in my own business.

A blog is a form of online journal that business owners use to develop customer relationships and establish credibility. Blog authors write and post relevant content frequently - daily, every couple of days or weekly.

After publishing an ezine for some time, I decided to give up my monthly ezine for a blog. Of course I could do both -- for the more points of contact with my target the better. But for now, I'll share my top seven reasons why I choose to blog over a monthly ezine:

Interactivity: Blogging puts the humanity in technology. Readers can leave comments and respond to each other. Adding video and audio to a blog also significantly enrich the learning experience, allowing for various learning styles. Ezines on the other hand, are fairly static.

Convenience & Ease: I can communicate with my audience quickly and efficiently without the elaborate set-up and content requirements of an HTML ezine.

Inexpensive: Lots of blogs are free. For example www.blogger.com. I like Typepad at www.typepad.com. For a minimal charge of $4.95 per month, I get a professional looking blog with upgraded features. Compare with a professional ezine/contact management program costing $19 per month.

Increases Visibility: Search engine spiders love blogs for the simple reason that they constantly seek new content. Frequent postings are crucial for success. As a result, bloggers gain increased Web presence and higher search engine rankings. For example, Google, Yahoo and others often index blog entries within days of posting as opposed to waiting weeks for ezine postings.

Content Management: When I set up this blog I created keyword-based categories for the topics that I'll write about in the future. Each time I post, I select which category my post applies to and voila! My posts are catalogued by category and date. This feature is essential fodder for future e-books and other informational products. Try content management with your ezine articles on your website - things can get unwieldy fast.

Clearly, blogging is an essential addition to my marketing toolbox. It's also effective for any service-based entrepreneur who needs to build client relationships and increase visibility.

Copyright © 2005

Lena Claxton is a small business coach & marketing consultant, committed to helping self-employed professionals reach their highest potential. She's author of the e-book "Small Business Boosts." Download your free copy at http://www.ontrakmarketing.com and receive a subscription to the "Ontrak Business Blog."

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Blogging/RSS Information:

Related Articles

#1 Mistake Most Blogs Do
As much as this might surprise most bloggers, the #1 mistake most blogs are doing is not publishing their content via e-mail, as a supplement to their RSS feeds.Just think about it: while RSS is growing strong, it still only penetrates about 5-6% of the American online population.
Reachout Throughout - RSS
RSS has been around for more than a decade but until recently "Rss Technology" started penetrating its roots deep inside the soil of the so-called E-world.Using this standard, web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines, special announcements, press releases or weblog postings through their RSS contentReally Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML vocabulary for describing metadata about web sites, ideal for news syndication.
Why Use RSS?
So why use RSS? Well, I can find a whole lot of reasons why. Although I'm not technically inclined I do understand the power behind syndication.
Easy RSS for Bloggers
Do you need help adding RSS feeds to your blogger? It's really easy and here is how you can do it:Log into your blogger accountGo to "settings"Go to "site feed"Copy the "site feed url"Then go to www.feedburner.
Its Not Enough to Blog
A properly created weblog will do the following for your website: (a) add rich content; (b) add interactivity in the form of user ability to post comments; and (c) if properly set up, can automatically ping major search engines when new posts are made. This results in more frequent spidering of your website by the major search engines, with the fresh content being picked up quickly and increasing your site's ranking.
RSS Support in New Microsoft Windows Vista
Microsoft Corp. says that the next version of its Windows operating system will have built-in support for RSS, an increasingly popular way to get news and other information channeled straight to a computer.
To Blog Or Not To Blog - A Laymans View
We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind of Harry Potterish, doesn't it?If you're over 20 years old, you probably think this is some crazy sci-fi phenomenon, or I've simply lost my mind. Don't fret, the vast majority of people don't know what a blog is all about and more importantly, why it matters to them.
Why It Took Me So Long To Blog
When I saw my first blog, I wasn't impressed.The first blogs I ever read were embarrassing tales of teenage angst better left private, political diatribes from both the rabid right and the rabid left, and jargon-filled tech rags that made my eyes glaze overAnd yet everyone was talking about blogs and that I would soon be left behind if I didn't have one.
How Weblogs can Help Realtors
What is a weblog, well simply put a weblog is a journal that is kept online. In it's simplest form a weblog will have an article every day or week that says what the person is doing.
How to Use a Blog to Dramatically Improve Your Web Business!
A blog is an online journal in which the author publishes his or her thoughts and opinions on a subject which interests them. A good blog will be updated frequently with new points of interest which the blogger (author) and readers can discuss.
Business Blogs and Their Benefits
Blog is a medium for self-expression on web. Blogs are in the form of few paragraph entries.
Even a 70 Something Technological Challenged Mom Can Get Started in Blogging With These 10 Tips
Blogging is all the rage. With these 10 Simple Steps even My 70 Something technological challenged Mom was able to Join the Growing number of Bloggers.
RSS for Newbies; A Quick Tutorial
"RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a new way to distribute content.
Dear Web Diary!
Blogging is hot and getting hotter, with more and more web logs (blogs) cropping up online by the day!Since being documented nearly a full decade ago, blogs and associated software have emerged, giving rise to this lucrative and dynamic market.Blogs are highly interactive.
Tips for a Better RSS Feed
Like anything else, a little work can pay dividends. Well-written RSS feeds are more useful to readers and result in more website traffic for the publisher.
Using RSS Feeds to Set Off a Traffic Explosion
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is the perfect answer to your needs for sharing and distributing content. The way this works is webmasters can share bits of code with one another that give them access to the others forums, newsletters, blogs, information, news, and the like.
RSS Meets the Needs of Direct Marketers
Contrary to general opinion, RSS meets the needs of even the most demanding direct marketer, actually providing most of what e-mail marketing does, except for the strong push factor.Most direct marketing reasons against RSS are in fact the result of inadequate understanding of RSS by most marketers.
What Are RSS Feeds?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It's a format thatweb sites and blogs can use to send updated headlines to you viaservices like My Yahoo!.
Sales Marketing: Secrets To Using Blogs (Online Diaries) To Increase Your sales And Profits
These days, everybody is blogging.How about you?You can incorporate blogging into your sales marketingand achieve more success.
RSS Directory Submission: The Key to Blog Promotion
According to Technorati, there are over 15 million blogs as of July 2005. And during July, an average of 80,000 new blogs were created each day.