Nowadays a blog is already almost an old hat. Lots of people have one, but still, I think most don't use it properly. Blogs are ideal to get your messages delivered and even more important to develop a relationship with your audience, which is absolutely crucial to assure long-term success for your online biz. Many people (myself included) start a blog, post a few messages and then stop providing valuable information. With a blog, you won't reap the fruits of your efforts immediately. It can take months, a year or even longer, but if you keep on providing great stuff - again and again - the final rewards will easily compensate the initial effort: You get people to trust you, they recommend you, buy your products... After all, I think 3-4 posts / week are enough and that shouldn't take more than an hour/week - not really a big deal for what you'll get in return. Anyway, I guess you're doing some research, education... on your niche topic, so whenever you find some golden nuggets, just post it on your blog. Do you have any great tips to share on how to make blogging more effective? Thanks. Robert
I think you've covered the bases well. I would argue that one of the most overlooked aspect of blogging is the design of the blog. Sure, the stock templates are nice, but I've seen them so many times that just looks very unprofessional and amature. Spending just a bit of time customizing your blog and making it stand out from the million other blogs that use your template will go along way in making your blog unique. As you said though, the real key is consistantly updating your blog. I agree, that 3-4 posts a week, provided they are quality posts, should be more than enough to build a nice archive of material that will pay off in the long term.
Tips for making your blogging more effective: Be clear about what your intention is...if it is to make money with AdSense then a regular "niche" site will probably do better. If the intention is to build a relationship with your visitors and establish your credibility and expertise and then use that to sell products [either your own or via affiliate programs] then blogs can be excellent. For general blogging tips you can't beat http://www.problogger.net/ I read it everyday. My last tip would be to not use a free blogging site if you are blogging with any kind of profit motive in mind.