Here are a few articles I have recently published about blogging for businesses and for individuals.

• An introduction to blogs
  

  I wrote my first blog post on a stone tablet using a crude chisel many years ago. It sounds good, doesn’t it? But blogging, one of the biggest buzz words on the Internet, is just a few year old.

  Blog is short for “web log”. The first people to blog created a personal diary on the Internet. Today, about a decade later, nearly all the blogs in existence are still just a personal diary on the Internet.

• Company blogs and their value for public relations
  

  A company blog brings a great deal of value to a business’s public relations efforts.A company blog is about information. Blogging will allow a business to place important and necessary information in a place that is easily accessible and available 24/7. Companies blog about common product questions, upcoming product improvements, recent changes in the industry, employee promotions and awards and other information which may be of interest to the community of people that surrounds the business.

• The best reasons to continue writing on your blog
  

  One of the most quoted phrases on blogs applies to writing on your blog; “Life happens.” Anyone who writes reaches a point when it becomes difficult to continue. It might be the dreaded “writer’s block.” It could be the writer’s changing interests.

  Everyone who writes a blog does so for a complex set of reasons. Life happens, things change, yet the blog remains. What are the best reasons for continuing to write on your blog?

I attended a workshop last night sponsored by the Greater Rochester Chapter of the National Association of Business Women. Noted blogger and social media marketer Yvonne DiVita and tech guru / recovering lawyer Tom Collins were the presenters.

There were about 16 attending, all but two women as you might expect from the sponsoring group. The presentation went over the two hours because there was so much information to be gleaned. The purpose of the workshop was to explore the basics of blogging for business. DiVita and Collins were especially gracious in answering questions.

Here’s what I found most important to me:

Reasons to Blog

1. To build brand awareness
2. To build traffic
3. To become a thought leader / authority in your field
4. To build community
5. To build word of mouth

3 Questions to Ask Before Blogging

1. What do you want to accomplish?
2. Who will I connect to?
3. How will I manage interactions, i.e. comments?

How to Run a Blog Effectively

1. Strive for every post to contain three links out and an image.
2. Spend time commenting on other blogs and on non-blogs.
3. Manage time by establishing an editorial calendar.

3 Mistakes Bloggers Make

1. They fail up update at least weekly.
2. They fail to understand their niche.
3. They fail to understand that blogging is a conversation, not a newsletter.

I highly recommend you consider Yvonne DiVita if you have an interest in learning how to blog for your business or if you want to learn how to market to women online. Her website is Lip-Sticking. Her twitter id is @y2vonne .