1. Don’t Cover Your Blog in Ads: If someone gets to your blog and the every space is covered in a Google it just kind of looks tacky. There is no problem with trying to monetize your blog but take a tasteful approach. If you look a little too greedy you will not get any returning traffic.

2. Don’t Write Once Per Month: There is nothing worse than coming to a blog and not seeing any updates for a few months or so. Once per week maybe week and a half are fine but once you start to approach the thirty day mark you will quickly see any traffic you have drop. Even if you start writing again it might be tough to get some of those people back.

3. Purchase Some Server Space: Get a blog that has your own domain hosted on your own server. having your own url structure and your own blog gives you freedom to do what you want. Recently music blogs have been seeing blog posts removed for anyone that uses a free Google blog because they are picking up posts that bands have given permission for a link to an MP3 as piracy. This is the stuff you have to worry about if you don’t have your own blog.

4. Stop Promoting Yourself: if you sit there and self promote over and over you are just going to loose all your traffic. It is fine to write about announcements at your company or even a new service or product offered once in a while but do just demand business on each blog post.

5. Use Photos: I think the use of a photo or video with your posts will keep the reader hanging out a bit longer. It is important to have a little more than just text. Even thought they are there to read not look at pictures a good user experience is important.

The whole idea behind a blog should not be too difficult to comprehend but I understand that many people are just not savvy when it comes to the internet. it is basically an online journal for everyone to see. There are many different ways you can apply a blog to your business and companies across the world have attempted to apply every possible blog technique to their business. some work and some don’t. I have listed a few ways a blog can be used to help grow your business.

1. Some companies use their blog to simply post about their products. You can write a daily blog post for every product you have on your website. By using model numbers and detailed product descriptions for each one of your product blog posts you can use your blog as a spring board to get your product descriptions floating around online that much further.

2. A blog can be used to express information on your industry. You can write daily about different trends and changes specifically to your industry and act as a voice for your market where people can come to and learn about what is going on.

3. If you have a brand that is very interesting and has a strong following you can use your blog to communicate to your past and current clients and customers. You can write about funny things that happen at your company and really take a personal approach as if you are specifically writing for each person reading your blog. This works well for successful companies in the spotlight such as clothing lines, musicians and entertainers.

4. If you are a service based industry you can write about your industry providing tips and tricks on how you complete some of your strategies for others to use as tools. If you provide good information others can use to better their daily routine you can quickly grow a strong following of readers on your blog.

These are just some blog strategies. Over time as a company you will figure out the best approach that works for you and your organization. One important rule to remember is that there is no rule book to launching a blog. Have fun with it and experiment with different approaches until you figure out one to stick with. It is fine to mix match the styles above. Just sit and write everyday in your blog and focus on the big picture and you will ultimately have a successful blog that can help grow your business.

It is no surprise that the power of the internet has completely changed we go about daily life. It seems like everyday there is something new being introduced to us that guarantees to make our lives easier. With our troubled economy here more and more of us will be looking for new employment. Some by choice and many by no choice at all.

Most employers are so utterly flooded with resumes that many do not know where to begin digging. It will be very important for you, as a job candidate, to stand out. You might be asking your self, how is starting a blog going to help me? Well lets take a moment and put yourself in the shoes of an HR representative. They probably sift out all the obvious non-compatible applicants and pull them out of the interview process. Once they start to narrow down their list some might search your name online just to see what sort of juicy gossip they can pull up. If you start a blog, even a free one, on a topic that you hold a passion for when they search for your name many of your hard written blog posts should appear in the search results.

There are two possible scenarios here:

1. The job you are seeking is directly related to the industry you write in your blog about. This my friends is going signal many things in the eyes of that HR person. One it is going to show you have passion for the product. It will also show that you have drive and you are willing to write and communicate to the world about this topic because you enjoy it so much that you are willing to do it for free.

2. If the job is not related to your industry it is still going to show drive and passion and the ability to use modern day communication strategies to express something that is dear to you will help them in their decision process. Plus the blog post about how bark can show the age maturation of a white birch will look better than your Facebook photo passed out on your buddies lawn.

If you are fresh new graduate right out of college or a seasoned professional launching a blog could help you get employed.

Many people are starting to realize that it has become much harder than expected to monetize their blogs. Launching a blog and offering some advertising space just doesn’t cut it. Even with massive amounts of traffic coming to your website it is still sometimes difficult to make money from your blog. When you launch a blog you have to keep in mind your goals. Blogs have become amazing tools of communication to stay in front of your audience through product announcements and other company information and news. If you are planning on launching a blog in an industry make sure you hold a special place in your heart for that industry and you plan on bringing some passion to your writing. If you lack the passion for your topic you WILL lose focus on your writing and your blog will end up suffering due to lack of interest in that field. This often times happens to individuals looking to launch a blog and make enough money to pay their mortgage by month’s end with it. It’s not going to happen so pick something you enjoy typing about.

You have to treat your blog like any other website. It takes time to mature and grow. You need to write and write and build a following of loyal clientele who will come to your website and read it daily. Watching your blog grow requires a tremendous amount of patience. I think many people looked at blogs like get rich quick schemes. They do not work that way. With so many blogs being created everyday you have to do the most to stay creative and active by writing in your blog daily if possible and targeting keywords in your blog posts. Always keep in mind the goal of your site and stay focused otherwise you might find yourself blowing the dust off your blog.

You have no readers, but then you have no content, so what are they going to read. Content. Create it, and plenty of it. All of the top blogs have pages and pages of content so you have a lot of catching up to do. The key to successful blogging in the early days is to imagine you have an army of readers just waiting for your next post.

Of course, to get those actual readers you need content and that content needs to be both worth reading and optimized for the search engines so that it appears in the search results. You don’t necessarily need to go mad with your optimization. As the site grows, so should you search optimization. Basics such as keyword selection and on page optimization form a good base.

Of page optimization such as social bookmarking and directory submission can make a start on your back links.  From there, the more content you have the more back links you will accumulate with a subsequent rise in search engine results placement. The higher you climb, the more visitors you will receive.

The constant addition of content and the delveopment of links both internal and external will see your blog grow from nothing to a powerful voice. All blogs start from nothing – they don’t have to stay that way.