Blogging News

Blog Marketing for Business

I’ve talked before about the incredible adaption and utilization of blogs in the business world. From Fortune 500 companies and corporations to small businesses just starting out, blogs have made the business world stand up and take notice. In June of this year, I wrote about the BusinessWeek article that followed up on the original groundbreaking story that introduced much of the business world to blogs back in 2005. Business Blogs and Beyond talked about the significant changes in the marketing landscape, and how social media, blogs and other forms of Web 2.0 marketing have opened up the doors to advertising on all fronts, harnessing the ability to connect with customers on levels that were never before possible.

The articles and accolades for marketing with business blogs haven’t stopped. Instead, blogs have become the #1 necessity for business owners looking for affordable, effective marketing that can deliver even in a questionable economy. Recently, Entrepreneur Magazine published an article about getting your business noticed at a minimal cost. Their #1 suggestion was blogs. From the article: “Set up a blog … and begin writing interesting commentary that relates to your business, says Hager. To drive traffic, comment on other topic-related blogs and include links back to your own blog.” Further down the list, they mention “Exploiting the Web” as number 17. This suggestion includes utilizing social media sites like delicious.com and digg.com to advertise and market products or services.
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Why Do We Blog?

Blogging seems like such an established part of the web experience that it’s easy to forget it’s only been in our lives for eleven years. If fact, if you’re on the hunt for the beginnings of the web log, you will eventually find yourself in April of 1997 at Dave Winer’s blog, Scripting News. By our eyes, jaded with eleven years worth of blog improvement, this first post looks unimpressive.

Impressive or not, however, it would prove the catalyst that sparked an online revolution. And, somehow, that first post (nothing more than a small string of words and links) became the precursor to the more established, higher tech blogs of today.

But there is still a fundamental question at the bottom of the phenomenon—what made this odd viral form of information exchange take off so quickly and so pervasively? In light of our busy schedules and the time commitment it requires, why do we sit down at the end of the day to blog?
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Blog Action Day 2008

Today is Blog Action Day. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when bloggers from around the world unite to talk about a specific subject that affects us all. The idea behind it is simple; if we can get enough people to to talk about a social concern, maybe we can do something about it and make a difference. Last year the topic was the environment, and this year we’re talking about poverty. Currently, blog action day has over 11,000 blogs participating with an estimated combined audience of over 12 million. We feel here at iePlexus that since we’re a big advocate of blogging, it was natural for us to participate in this great cause and encourage the same from our clients and readers. It’s important to sometimes take a step back from business and realize that we all have a social responsibility to help others and contribute to the greater good. As a business, iePlexus has also taken steps to reach out, providing no-cost services to community organizers and churches, and participating in charity events to benefit programs like Habitat for Humanity.
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Online Market Dominated by 30 and Under Crowd

Multi-million dollar businesses usually conjure images of men in power suits wheeling and dealing with the aid of brandy and cigars. But Armani suits may just have to make way for Abercrombie denim, because the online market has forever changed the face of high powered business endeavors. As we move further into a technological age, the 30 and under crowd continues to dominate some of our most well-known companies.

If you don’t believe it, look a little closer at the faces behind Facebook, YouTube, Mozilla, WordPress, and Digg. What do they all have in common? For one, each company has a net worth over $30 million. But a more telling similarity is that each entrepreneur has yet to see 31 birthday candles. And they’re not the only examples. Check out the Top 50 Entrepreneurs Under 30.

Right now, no one believes more in the moneymaking power of the internet than Johns Wu. He recently sold his blog, Bankaholic.com, for $15 million. And at the age of twenty-two, Wu is just one example of how the internet has opened entrepreneurial opportunities for web savvy youngsters.
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Political Relevance Depends on Internet

During election years, we all know people who magically become “political experts.” And with the constant inundation of debates, scandal, and mud slinging, it’s no wonder politics has become the constant fodder fueling our water coolers. But is politics the topic de jour only because it’s an election year? Or is there more to it? A recent list of the 25 most influential people on the web seems to suggest there’s a whole lot more.

Ranking in this list are both Arianna Huffington and Jon Stewart. Huffington is the mastermind behind the hugely successful political blog the HuffingtonPost.com, while Stewart is the host of the irreverent news show and associated website TheDailyShow.com.
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When Blogging Kills

Blogger TombstoneThere is no limit to just how much the internet has revolutionized our world. Not only has information become an immediately accessible commodity, but it has also changed the way people all around the world are working. Especially in the world of blogging, people are able to transform their homes into offices and effectively become their own bosses. While this sounds like every worker’s dream, for many people, home offices quickly become little else than digital sweatshops.

The internet never sleeps, and that means blog workers can’t either. Working in an entity that has no regard for time zones or exhaustion, bloggers constantly feel the pressure to report on the latest and greatest. That means even at the expense of personal health.
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Business Blogs Deserve Better than Blogspot.com

Warning SignsLet me preface this post by saying I’m a big fan of Google and their online applications. Even Blogger, their online blogging software has its benefits, to some extent. Also, although my company offers business blogs as a service, this post is not about my company or our services, it’s about making the right business decision when it comes to implementing a business blog. An online business deserves every opportunity to become as successful as possible, and Blogspot.com just doesn’t offer the kind of support, services and features that are necessary to get the most out of this marketing device. I’m also not stating these reasons because I have studied other people’s experiences. I myself blogged for over three years using the Blogger service starting back in 2003, before it was even popular. That’s before I found WordPress and became a 100% advocate of their open-source platform and content management system. So when you’re reading these opinions, rest assured it’s from someone familiar with the complete Blogger experience. 
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Business Blogs and Beyond

Business Week Beyond BlogsIn 2005, Business Week premiered one of the defining articles for business owners and their place online. “Blogs Will Change Your Business” was the title, and the article made many waves in the industry as one of the first from mainstream media to truly acknowledge the power and impact of blogging on business. Since then, thousands of articles in thousands of publications have showcased how the evolution of media and the web has made a fundamental impact on how we do business, not just online, but in virtually every corner of our culture.

The original article had a realistic and objective view of how a business could benefit from a blog. From creating an online identity and building credibility, to market testing and customer interaction, business blogs served more purposes than could be covered in one article. Business Week also stressed the importance of clearing away the clutter – although the numbers for this kind of media were staggering, not everything was worth reading. (more…)

Business Blogs and the Media

Business Week - Blogs Will Change Your BusinessWhen the phenomenon of blogs first started, they were simply a way for people to post their personal thoughts on the web, like an online diary. Blogs were bulky, had little features and were difficult to incorporate into a business. The few pioneers in the industry knew from the beginning however, that blogs would explode into the most effective form of communication on the web. These days, you can’t escape blogs if you spend any time online at all. Along the way, blogs emerged as an effective business tool and the media began to acknowledge the profound effect they’re having on the way we do business.

Countless articles have been written about the astounding effect blogs have had on business. Many chronicle the story of a small business with an innovative product that was picked up by bloggers and spread across the blogosphere in a matter of hours, resulting in an enormous buzz that led to extensive financial benefits. Businesses have been built on blogs, some emerging in a few days just through this aspect of utilizing blogs and viral marketing to get the word out.  This article highlights one of those stories.
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Advertising With A Business Blog

Advertising with a BlogThere are many advantages to advertising with a business blog in today’s competitive online marketplace.

For one, blogs carry more weight with search engines because they are updated regularly with fresh, informative content. This consistently updated information is a magnet for search engine robots. When these bots crawl blogs, the more information that can be found and indexed the better. Blogs add more and more content as they develop, thus helping that information reach more customers. The users finding blogs online are typically very targetted visitors, having searched for a specific keyword found in the blog to end up there. The owners of these blogs are also advertising their sites all over the internet and participating in the very active blog community.
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