Blogging, now regarded as an important part of social networking has both Pros, and Cons. For some of us, blogs are a part of our daily lives. We live on blogs and blog about everything from our experience in the grocery store to our friends and families. Others use blogs for showcasing their business, products, or services, offering unique content to help promote such wares and services.
What are the Pros of having a blog?
1) Ease of Use.
Blogs are relatively easy to use, navigate around and set up. No matter what blog platform you decide on, simple blog formats are available and a basic blog can be built rather quickly. One does not have to have the formal knowledge of any technical “HTML” lingo. If you do know this, it is only a huge plus and will help you transform your basic blog into a superb blog in no time.
2) Cost = Free.
Most blogs are free to use and can be used for personal use or business use. Make sure to review the terms of service on your blog service to ensure you are familiar with what content is permitted.
3) Create and Grow a Following.
Blogs allow the blogger the ability to create and build a following. “Followers” or “Subscribers” of your blog will be kept abreast of your latest articles (postings) or communications via subscribing to your blog or RSS feeds from your posts.
4) Time Saving Techniques Can Be Combined With Blogging To Aid in Social Networking.
Blogging allows you to tie in other programs to help your social networking flow more smoothly and your business gain more exposure. For instance, you can set up your blog to automatically import and post your new blog posts to your Facebook. They can also easily be shared with Twitter. Tying in all your social networking is just another quick and easy way to gain exposure. Using time saving techniques can make social networking only a few minutes of your daily routing, and some that will pay off.
5) Limitless Cross Exposure and Blog Ideas.
Blogging also allows you to pick any topic you wish and each post is unique. Each post goes out into cyberspace with its own web address. One post may obtain Google Page Rank on its own. By doing so your blog may gain more exposure if one article becomes popular. If you blog once about strawberries and once about cars, each will have its placement in cyberspace. You can also cross-promote with other bloggers, by interviewing and linking to each other’s blogs, you keep the content flowing. Blogs allow for unlimited cross exposure and therefore grow your blog presence.
6) You Can Obtain a Domain Name For Your Blog.
Worried about your blog not being regarded as a “real” website? You can easily obtain a domain name from a domain company (like GoDaddy) and redirect your domain name to your blog. This is inexpensive and easy to do. Browse my other articles for step by step how-to’s on this.
So what are the cons of blogging?
1) The Only Cons Are Determined By You.
If you stop producing content, your blog followers will stop reading, and you will lose credibility and page rank (if you built any page rank to start with). You must be dedicated not only in content building, but in submitting your blog to search engines, and building page rank to drive visitors to your blog. Blogs require more work up front. Once you have gained exposure and built up your fan base, it’s smooth sailing and continuous content producing that you will want to focus on.
Though some may frown upon having a blog as your website, in this day and age blogs are more widely accepted as such and can be a viral form of self marketing. Who better to market yourself or your product than you?
It’s all in what you put into it. Blogging requires time, effort, and creativity. If you don’t have these three factors; or attempt to lean them, then you may wish to have a boring old stagnant website.
