If you have a well established blog then you will probably not need to encourage visitors to stop and comment. If, on the other hand, you are a relatively new blogger then gaining readers and comments can be difficult. A relatively new plugin for WordPress call Keyword Luv may help. When it comes to blog plugins, this is one of the easy ones to use.

Keyword Luv allows commenters to include a keyword with their name when leaving a comment. Rather than just leaving a name and email, the visitor can enter name@keword then their email. The comment link will appear with the keyword rather than just their name.

Blog plugins are designed to add to the functionality of a blog – this one does the job well. The use of the plugin brings up another point. When leaving comment on other sites, do you just leave your name?

It would make sense to use a keyword name such as ‘name at keyword’ when leaving a comment so long as the blog owner doesn’t object. Making small changes like this can make a big change when it comes to comments and links back.

Of course, if the nofollow plugin is not used the whole issue of keywords and links becomes moot.

There are many blog and website services around the net; however most only provide partial services. Reputable services are able to offer businesses, particularly those that have a web presence and want to extend that by adding a blog, a wide range of options. Here are some of the options available:

Blog installation, setup and ongoing maintenance.
Installing a blog can be straightforward however the setup and particularly the ongoing maintenance can be time consuming. If you don’t have any experience with blogs then selecting and using the appropriate plugins can be confusing.

Blog SEO
Setting up a blog is just the start. Using the right plugins to help with your blog SEO is a must. Setting up appropriate categories and tags is also a part of your blogs SEO.

Blog Theme
If you have a website then your blog should either match the websites design or complement it. A blog and website service provider will help to get a theme that does complement both your website and your business.

Blogging Service
If you find it difficult to provide well written regular content for your blog then a blog and website services provider can help by writing regular posts and publishing them on your blog. You are assured of good keyword optimized content.

Social Optimization
With a good blog design and quality content that is informative to visitors and assists your blog SEO all that is left is to optimize for the various social media sites. This helps to generate visitors and back links to your blog.

Integration
The final step in the puzzle, and the least optimized for most businesses, is the integration that is required between a web site and its blog. Where to place appropriate links and the correct anchor text can make a big difference. Blog and website services providers have experience with integration and how to achieve maximum results from that integration.

Blog and website services can help with the creation and ongoing development of your business blog. The long term benefits include extra traffic – and sales and increases in search engine rankings.

Writing blog or web site content on a regular basis can be difficult.  If you add in a dose of the dreaded writers block, chances are you could sit at your keyboard for hours and not type a single word. Perhaps social bookmarking can provide some inspiration.

For many writers, they have their favorite sites – but do they have their favorite bookmarkers? If you have added individuals with similar niche related preferences then checking items that they have bookmarked can be a good start. To a certain extent, this was the original idea behind social bookmarking.

The alternative is to use a social bookmarking site like StumbleUpon. Set your preferences to your niche then sit back and let SU take you through a random series of popular content. Stop and read what is relevant, stumble through to the next item if it has no interest.

There are several major benefits in using social bookmarking site for inspiration. The first is obvious – you do get inspired by an article. Other benefits include the introduction to new sites you may not have come across before (or a reminder of a site that you had forgotten about) and learning. You will be surprised at how much you can learn just by randomly visiting sites that others have bookmarked.

Many consider social bookmarking and the random viewing of pages as a ‘time waster’ and that this time could be better utilized. Sometimes,  by ‘wasting’ 30 minutes  you may find you have acquired new knowledge, been inspired to write (often more than one post too) and found new and interesting sites. It seems to me, with the right attitude, social bookmarking could also be considered an investment.

Social bookmarking is not just about promoting yourself. Sometimes you can gain a lot more by letting others promote to you.

There is more to running a blog than just content and blog SEO. The blog design needs to be right as well and by that I mean it needs to fit the niche you are writing in. Many bloggers just grab a free theme they like, install it and away they go.

I don’t have anything against free themes per, especially if you are first starting out and are don’t have many readers or visitors. However as you start to build a name and reputation of your blog online you need to think about a theme that is unique for your blog. Your theme becomes a part of your branding – a part of your image.

Free themes come with several problems, the first and obvious being that many others share it. While this may not be a big problem, it can be for your image and branding – remember, you need to be unique – to stand out in the crowd of the millions of blogs active on the web.

Other problem associated with free blog themes includes hidden links in the footer that may go to sites that may hurt your SEO efforts. This can be a serious problem you can lose visitors as well.

Your blog theme is the first thing that visitors see, well before the content. It has to be attractive and inviting while selling you and your brand and image. It needs to convey a feeling of authority, even if your site is just full of jokes; it still needs to sell that feeling.

Free themes won’t cut it in the long run. They won’t support your image and they won’t help to sell you. Getting your own theme designed is not always that expensive, it can however make a huge difference.

You need to be blogging, if you are not already. Blogs are a very powerful and effect marketing tool.

The pros of blogging are:

• they provide fresh content to your website
• the search engines love them and will index blog posts very frequently
• installation and the “optimizing” of your blog is not too time consuming
• they are tons of ways to promote your blog via directories, link etc.
• they are a social marketing tool, thus can help you connect to others in your field or subject matter

Now there are some cons and the two major ones are:
• they can be time consuming-for writing and/or promoting ones blog
• some technical knowledge is needed to install and properly “optimize” the blog

Now these cons can be overcome but hiring someone to do it for you but of course that cost money

The main point of this post is to share with you a couple of examples of the power of blogging.

A while back, I got a phone from SuperPages asking about my account. I told them everything was fine and not to bother me again. Well after a few more “telemarketing” type calls from them (from an overseas call center) I decided to blog about it and vent.

Not two days later, someone from SuperPages called me and asked for details! I was impressed and amazed that someone actually called. Within a week, they had taken care of the problem and took the time to call me back.

I asked them how they heard about my blog post. They said that someone in marketing saw the post via Google Alerts and took action.

Another great example is from my associate Tim at Convert Offline. I will let you read his blog post but basically he got a new “dream job” because a company looking for someone with his background and experience, found his blog, contacted him and within an hour, offered him a job.

The point is that people and companies out there reading, searching for information on-line and blogs are a perfect vehicle for getting your message across. If you are promoting yourself, your company, or your product and service. The pen is mightier than the sword!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Larry Sullivan has been online for over 8 years – helping small business to increase their online visibility. Larry specializes in local search marketing and blogs about local search and other related Internet marketing topics at LocalBizBits.com.