Wednesday, May 07, 2008

why I love and why I hate blogging


Advantages of Blogs
Blogs are probably the easiest way to have a website. With blog software, it literally takes minutes to have a professional looking site up and running. These are the five things I like the most about blogs:


Blogs are easy to create:
You don't need expensive or complicated web editors or web design software to create a blog. Blog vendors offer you a variety of templates you can choose from. Most likely you will find among them one that offers the look and feel you're looking for. Your only web design expense may very well be to pay a graphics artist to design an attractive logo that makes your site unique.


Blogs are easy to maintain:
Blog software allows you to post online, which means that you won't need to bother with FTP software. This also means that you can post anywhere, not just from your own computer. You may be in a hotel room in China, and if it has an internet connection you can log in and update your website from your web-based control panel. Your blog's software will automatically move your most recent post to the top, while archiving older posts by date or by topic, so you don't ever have to bother to move web pages around.
Set Up Your Blog Now!


Blogs are search-engine-friendly:
Since blogs assign each post an individual URL address, each of them will have it's own, separate web page. If you take care of making each post very focused on a specific topic and carefully choose the keywords that best describe your post (using them in the post title and post body), they will stand a very good chance of ranking well with the search engines. Also, since blogs tend to be updated regularly, search engines will crawl them often (search engines love fresh content), adding your new posts to their index.


Blogs allow you to interact with your customer base:
The best websites allow your customers to interact with you and give feedback. Since blogs offer you the option of enabling a "comments" field after your posts where readers can give you feedback, your visitors will not only be more inclined to come back, but you will have at your disposal an effective and inexpensive way to get to know your customers better.


Many great blog hosts are free:
There are several excellent services that offer blog hosting for free. The most well known of them is Blogger, a free blog service owned by Google. Signing up takes minutes, it offers many different templates and customization options, and also gives you the option of tying your blog with your Google Adsense account. That way, not only is the service free, but you can also make money. The downside to all these great advantages is that they have encouraged the creation of a huge number of me-too and low quality blogs that don't add value and hardly get any traffic.


Don't fall into that trap. Before jumping to create a blog, remember that to be successful you must write about a focused and original topic, or offer a unique perspective on a common theme. In the end, as the cliché says, it all boils down to quality content.

You can freely reprint this article provided that you include the following resource box:Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net/ ), an internet marketing content site packed with useful articles and resources, and SEO Tutorial ( http://www.seotutorial.info/ ) where you can learn the basics of search engine optimization in four easy steps.

Blogs and Blogging: Advantages and Disadvantages

By Gerry McGovern - Mon, 08/23/2004 - 10:32am.

Isn't it interesting that some of the most significant 'revolutions' of the last twenty years have all had to do with writing?

How retro is that? First we had email, then webpages, then mobile phone texting, and now blogs. All this reflects a trend whereby the world is becoming more formal in how it communicates. Instead of body language and endless conversations, communication has shifted towards endless words on a screen.

Bloggers are people with attitude. They say there's a book inside everybody. Well, the Web and blogs have let the book out! There has literally been an explosion of opinion. Traditionally, public relations was about honing a silvery message that communicated exactly what the organization wanted us to hear. Now, we can hear all sorts of voices on the subject. It's true democracy at work.

The advantages of blogs from an organizational perspective include the following:
1) The consumer and citizen are potentially better informed and this can only be good for the long-term health of our societies and economies.
2) Blogs have potential to help the organization develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with its customers, as they interact with the 'human face' of the organization through blogs.
3) Blogs, in an intranet environment, can be an excellent way of sharing knowledge within the organization.
4) Blogs can be a positive way of getting feedback, and keeping your finger on the pulse, as readers react to certain pieces, suggest story ideas, etc.
5) Blogs can build the profile of the writer, showcasing the organization as having talent and expertise.

The disadvantages of blogs are:
1) Most people don't have very much to say that's interesting, and/or are unable to write down their ideas in a compelling and clear manner.
2) I have often found that the people who have most time to write have least to say, and the people who have most to say don't have enough time to write it. Thus, the real expertise within the organization lays hidden, as you get drowned in trivia.
3) Like practically everything else on the Web, blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain.
Writing coherently is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for a human being to undertake. So, far from blogs being a cheap strategy, they are a very expensive one, in that they eat up time. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization.

4) Organizations are not democracies. The Web makes many organizations look like disorganizations, with multiple tones and opinions. Contrary to what some might think, the average customer prefers it if the organization they are about to purchase from is at least somewhat coherent.

There's money in words; real value, real worth. I'm not a blogger but I do have this newsletter and I can tell you that these 500 or so words that I publish every week have seen a major return on investment for me.

As an individual, I would highly recommend that you have some sort of publishing strategy, whether it be a blog, newsletter, writing articles for magazines, website or whatever. This is an age where you will build your professional reputation word by word. Start off by finding something people care about and that you care about.

For your web content management solution, contact Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com
Subscribe to his New Thinking Newsletter: subscribe@gerrymcgovern.mailer1.net

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LONDON: In yet another instance of campus killing of an Indian student abroad, a 23-year-old Indian postgraduate girl from Vijaywada was found dead at her hostel in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham on Tuesday night.

V Jyotirmayee Nagasaibabu, a student of the University of Wolverhampton pursuing MS degree in Health Sciences, was found dead in her hostel room, police said.

One person was arrested late on Wednesday in connection with Jyotirmayee's murder.

The West Midlands Police spokesman said that the unidentified arrested man, 24, was arrested on suspicion of her murder.

He added that the man was currently helping police with their enquiries.

A post mortem examination on Jyotirmayee's body was conducted on Wednesday, which established that she died as a result of head injuries.

A man with serious injuries was also found when the police were called on Tuesday evening. He is said to be in a stable condition in a hospital.

The cause of Nagasaibabu's death or injuries to the man has not been revealed but the police have initiated house-to-house inquiries at the scene.

The West Midlands police said that forensic tests were being carried out at the premises and a post-mortem would be carried out on the body later.

Anonymous said...

Although I am neither rich nor a great philanthropist I contribute small amounts in hundreds and thousands to help the down trodden and needy. When my driver mentioned that he postponed the eye operation of his daughter for want of funds I readily gave him 1K and sent him to the hospital. When I saw the look on the grateful driver my heart leapt with joy. Incidentally I teach English to my drivers to help them get a better job and supply books, dictionary, writing materials and stationery etc.

I along with the members of our club prepare the paperwork and find a willing partner club abroad to get enough funds to execute a major scheme that benefits a whole community. A bore well in a village, a toilet in the Railway station for the convenience of passengers, are a few of the many cases in point.

I listed all the above activities not to blow my trumpet but to impress upon the members the pleasure of giving and to motivate them to undertake similar schemes whenever possible and contribute whatever little they can. This is definitely a better way of serving God than presenting a gem studded necklace to the Lord Balaji who has more than enough ornaments by now. Recently one devotee presented such a necklace worth a crore and half to the Lord. I think it was a sheer waste of money which could have been put to better use. Imagine what that amount would have done to a village or hamlet.

Finally even giving a kind word helps the recipient if he is in dumps.

I would like to sign off by saying that even in interpersonal relationships there is a great pleasure in giving pleasure to the other party including one’s life partner. Giving is always a “win win” situation. Just do it.

Anonymous said...

http://rama-rao-garimella.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/04/the-pleasure-of-giving.htm