Blogs

In this article we will discuss a relatively new intertnet
tool – the Blog.

Blog (also known as Weblog) is traditionally a webpage where
pre-surfer or a blogger “logs” all pages he/she finds
interesting. In other words, it is a Web page that contains
brief, chronologically arranged items of information.
Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality
of the author.

Weblogs provide a series of annotated links to items such as
news stories, and often include personal rants. They are
maintained by one person, most commonly someone who is
involved in Web design or some other tech-related field.

A blog is often a mixture of what is happening on a
particular website and what is happening on the Web, a kind
of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many
unique types of blogs as there are people. Blogs can be used
to introduce products to potential customers.

People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but
the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated
published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com.
Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify
and accelerate the publishing process.

Blog as a marketing tool

Blogs offer huge marketing potential. They are highly
strategic tools that can strengthen relationships, share
knowledge, increase collaboration, and improve branding.
Besides, blogs can represent the real voice of the website.

A weblog can take the form of a diary, a news service (or
summaries of and links to current news items on a topic), a
collection of links to other Web sites, a series of book
reviews or products, reports of activity on a project, the
journal of an expedition, and much more. Businesses can use
this tool to effectively advertise their products or
services.

One of the most interesting ways to use a weblog is by
allowing it to function as a discussion forum for customers
of your products or services. In this case, the webmaster
can give posting rights to other people – visitors and
customers, and their posts may or may not be reviewed before
they are published to the Web page. Customers, in such a way
can post favorable comments about the websites offerings.
Some weblogs are set up in such a way that only the owner or
the owner and certain other people have posting rights, but
anyone else can add comments to the posts.

Weblogs when used with newsletters present immense marketing
opportunities:

* Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog,
extending life and creating a massive conversation.
* You can offer a bidirectional forum to customers to get
true, personal opinions on your products and services.
* Company experts can start a blog and become industry
experts, helping your company edge out competition and,
through this interactive forum,draw customers into another
exchange of information and thoughts.
* The beauty of this interplay is you can layer your blog
with editorial controls.

How to create a Weblog?

The majority of weblogs are now created using software or
services designed specifically for this purpose. Some of the
software is free - and some of the organizations that
provide weblog software will also provide free server space
to house a weblog so that it is publicly accessible on the
Internet. There are also commercial versions of some of the
free software; these commercial versions often provide more
features. Some weblog software is available only as
commercial software. Alternatively, bloggers can create and
maintain their weblog using free software or a free weblog
service, but use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to load the
resulting weblog to their own Website.

There are many blogging softwares available easily on the
Internet. One of the most popular weblogger is “Blogger”
which can be downloaded for free at http://www.blogger.com.
Most webloggers simplify the process of Website creation.
However, they do require basic knowledge of FTP, Website
structures and a few technical terms. Besides, creating an
advanced weblog requires knowledge of HTML.

So get out there and start your own Blog…it’s free,easy and
can work seamlessly with the rest of your website or
newsletter. Until next time…

Warmly,
Asep Rohman