subject: Why Blogging Can Be An Effective Advertising Tool For You [print this page] Technorati, a blog search engine had tracked no less than 112 million blogs in existence as at December 2007. This in itself is evidence of the extent of usage and popularity of blogs. Blogs which originated as private diaries have now become highly commercialized.
The main characteristics of a blog, which is primarily a website are that (a) the content is arranged in a reverse chronological order, so that at first glance it always presents the most recently updated content with of course easy access to its archives. (b) Its interactive nature encourages visitors to leave comments and reviews/feedbacks, the reason why most social networking websites such as Myspace and FaceBook also use blogs. (c) Blog entries are generally brief and concise. (d) They contain links to many other similar blogs.
Advertisers have found the above characteristics to be ideal for exploitation to better suit the purposes of advertising to take their messages to potential users while simultaneously receiving free feedbacks from users too.
The arrangement of content in a blog with the most recent update appearing on top is a distinct advantage for attracting more visitors to the site who like to see new material and changes all the time. The interactive feature built into blogs is another factor that visitors enjoy, giving them a feeling of belonging and importance in leaving their two cents worth of comments/feedbacks. Sometimes this leads to more comments on comments, discussions and even arguments that add more color to the blog.
The concise nature of the advertising content as opposed to a conversational tone is more appealing to consumers; and favorable feedbacks left by satisfied users become gifts of free advertisements (to the seller) while carrying them with a greater thrust to the consumer. (Possibly the blog owner will take appropriate care if there were too many unfavorable feedbacks on his products appearing on his site!)
Blogs greatly facilitate publishing to the web eliminating the need to be conversant with HTML/FTP jargon that is another plus factor for advertising.
The interactive feature employed in blogs also helps develop a sense of loyalty of frequent visitors to the site, which becomes synonymous to them with the product advertised. Due to these feelings of loyalty and belonging that a blog influences on its frequent visitors, they themselves become live advertisers of the product/s thus helping in the achievement of the objectives of the blog and the advertiser.
Improving and adding more links to other blogs with similar interests would provide you with additional avenues of promoting your products among a larger audience.
It is true that a blog is capable of giving your advertising a tremendous thrust, but if it is optimum sales you want for your products, improve the products wherever possible thanks to the free surveys and feedbacks you get from some loyal readers. Keep on reviewing the site all the time improving its appearance, content, images, and animations etc. The addition of more tools like a "buying cart" and a credit card processing utility would help you generate direct sales through your blog itself.
Why Blogging Can Be An Effective Advertising Tool For You
