Blogging

We recently started a blog on our company site (http://www.onyxlogix.com/blog). A blog helps you gain traffic to your site because it is refreshed daily or weekly (depending on when you write). Search engines like Google like updated sites, so you may get a higher ranking over time.



Blogs allow you to connect with your clients on a personal or informal basis. In our blog, for example, we are planning to offer offbeat ideas and thoughts that we have about web design and business. These are our ideas that could not fit anywhere else on our site (they would look out of place).



We use Wordpress for your blog (http://www.wordpress.org). There is a module/plugin that we installed (free) from WordPress called AdMan that allows you to place ad code such as Google Adsense directly into all your blog posts. If your blog becomes popular, you could easily pay for your hosting and domain costs through advertising.



Although our blog is relatively new, it has helped increase our site traffic. I suggest you use Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics) to track your visitors.



Either way, blogs are free to set up (minus time of course!), so give it a try. It doesn't hurt. Please let me know if I can be of assistance.



Sawan Patel

OnyxLogix

http://www.onyxlogix.com

Hi Neal0408,



A blog will present a human face to your company. It helps build relationships, because visitors and you may have an opportunity to converse, instead of surfing in, finding nothing to do or read, and immediately surfing out again.



Blogs have the power to attract new visitors to your site, because they offer features (RSS feeds) that alert others almost instantly when you have new content.



Once visitors arrive at your site, your blog will draw them in deeper and also bring them back. You see, with a blog there is a lot more for someone to see, read and do (compared with a traditional business website).



And the savvy startup entrepreneurs are using their blogs either as a replacement for their websites, or they build their websites "around" their blogs, integrating the two completely.



Good luck with your blogging plans,

Anita

I just added a blog to our website. The thing that kept me from doing sooner was worrying that no one would care what I had to say. So, I just decided not to worry about that at all and that has freed me quite a bit. I post mostly updates about the site and I still don't know whether or not anyone cares about what I say, but at least I know I'm getting my company name out there.



So, my advice is just to not try too hard. Keep your blog friendly and conversational. Think of it as a way to add quick notes on things you want your visitors to know without adding a page to your website or doing a drastic redesign. Use it as an informal communication tool and hopefully your site visitors will appreciate it.



I would love to read some success stories about what types of "content" in blogs have gotten positive responses for others.



Bruce W. Coffman,

Bettye's Closet

My blog is on my profile and I agree with what Bruce and the others said above. It is somewhere that my contacts can go for more information. I put the blog on every e-mail I send out to help spread the word.