February 3rd, 2010
A lot of people have already discovered the benefits of having a blog. Others, however, are still undecided about it. Blogs are used for different reasons. Some us it as a marketing strategy; to establish themselves as an expert, build trust with potential customers, and then redirect them to a website where the reader can buy their products. Others use it either as an online diary, or as a means of making money. In this post, I will outline the pro’s and con’s of having a blog.
Pro’s
Marketing – As said above, a blog is a very good way to market your product
Possible income – If you can get enough visitors to your blog, and enough subscriptions to your RSS feed, companies will want to advertise on your blog. Alternatively, you can get paid commission by ‘affiliate’ selling, where you mention a product sold by someone else, and for anyone who that product, and was directed from your site, you earn commission
Traffic from search engines – Search engines regularly scan blogs and add them to their search listings. The more pages your blog has, and the more relevant it is to the search term, the higher up your link will appear. This is good because you will get more visitors each day, which means more people to click your link; either to your products, or someone else’s.
Feedback – A blog is a great way to get some feedback about your product. Make sure you enable the comments though, otherwise you won’t get any!
Reputation – As long as you don’t have any silly spelling or grammar mistakes, your blog will help build not only your company’s reputation, but also it’s brand awareness as well.
Free – Most blogs are free. Others, however, cost money, but these usually have better features and stats analytics.
Con’s
v Reputation – Mainly, this is a pro, because most of the time a blog will improve your company’s reputation. As said above, however, any mistakes, speaking out of term, or giving incorrect information can seriously tarnish your reputation. It takes years to build a reputation, and seconds to destroy it.
v Time – While blogging is mainly free, you may see it as free marketing. It’s not. Ever heard the phrase ‘Time is money’? Silly question, of course you have! A blog takes a lot of time to maintain, and if you fail to maintain it, it could harm your reputation.
v Legal – Beware of this one. If you offer advice to your readers, make sure you include a disclaimer. If one of your readers decides to take you up on your advice, and it all goes horribly wrong for them, chances are it will also go horribly wrong for you, as they will either spam your blog with negative comments, or in the worst case scenario, commence legal action against you.
Well, there you have it. The pro’s and con’s of blogging. I hope you found this post helpful, thanks for reading!
I currently work for Keepers Accountancy, and I am in charge of all of our Email Marketing, Blogging, Social Networks; basically everything e-marketing! If you would like to read more posts, publishing tips on topics such as e-marketing, finance and tax, then head over to http://www.keepers.info/blog Thanks for reading!
Article Source
Posted in Wordpress Blog Articles