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Home::Viral Marketing
So you have a blog, now what do you do with it? Blog Basics
Author : Sherry Holub
(This article assumes that you have already set up a blog on
your website. I highly recommend using sBlog: http://servous.se/)
What started out as just a way for you to write an online
journal has quickly turned into a very viable internet marketing
tool. The weblog, or blog for short, has become a great way to
draw attention to your website. Below I will discuss the steps
you need to take to make the most of this new tool.
1.Content: Probably the most important feature of your new blog
is the content - what you post. As an example, you can see what
my own company, JV Media Design, has put up here:
http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog . You will notice that we post
a lot of articles related to the business of design and the
internet. Content that is relative to your business or industry
is the most effective. Articles, news, tips, tutorials, and
links or other resources are all great examples of what would be
considered good content for your blog.
2.Updates: Optimally, your blog should always be up to date with
fresh content. Of course, this can't always be the case, so it
would be advantageous to update your blog as much as you can. If
you can manage the content, a few times a week would be enough
to keep your information fresh. There are plenty of free
resources online that could help you with content. Simply do a
search in your favorite engine for "free site content" or "free
articles" and you should fine multiple links that could make it
even easier for you to keep your blog up to date.
3.Links: Once you have some content posted into your blog, you
will want to tell the internet world about it. The best way to
do this is to submit your RSS feed link to sites that accept
those feeds. What's an RSS feed you ask? RSS is another acronym
for "RDF Site Summary", "Rich Site Summary", or "Really Simple
Syndication". Basically, it's just a format for sending out your
content to others. The best resource for where to submit this
link is: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/ It might take
you a couple hours to go through this list, but I highly
recommend submitting to all the links you can. Simply click on a
submission link on the list and then follow the directions. Most
sites will ask for your "RSS 0.91" or "RSS 2.0" feed link.
If you are using sBlog, your links would be:
http://www.YOURWEBSITE.com/blog/rss/?mode=0.91
http://www.YOURWEBSITE.com/blog/rss/?mode=2.0
Some sites only ask for the URL to your blog, which would be:
http://www.YOURWEBSITE.com/blog
Usually, the site will also ask for a description of your blog
feed. Try to be as descriptive as possible while using keywords
from your industry (ie. "JV Media Design - Web, graphic, and
multimedia design tips, tutorials, and helpful information).
Some will ask you to choose the best category for your blog feed
as well.
4.Pings: Yet another web acronym, ping is short for "Packet
Internet Groper" and is basically just a utility program that
tests a network connection. In the blog world, pings are used to
tell other sites that you are there. There is debate on how
often you should ping others but the general consensus is that
you should do it every time you update your blog with new
content. The best utility to ping blog directory sites (where
you should have been submitting your RSS feed links in point #3)
is: http://pingomatic.com/ - Simply go to this site once you
update your content, enter your URL
(http://www.YOURSITE.com/blog) and description, check off all
the boxes, then click "submit pings".
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