More and more people are getting the hang of blogging for business. And still, I get many inquiries from people over what's the big deal about blogs??

Blogs are free. You can use any one of the variety of blogging services available on the Internet, or check with your hosting provider, a blog may come packaged with your hosting account.

I make sure that my business blog is full of business related articles, and that my jewelry / arts and crafts blog is full of interesting tidbits about my handcrafted products. I make sure I *ping* each new blog post so it gets "out there" as quickly as possible. I have a growing base of subscribers in the antiques, vintage, collectibles, jewelry artisan and arts and crafts fields as this is where my expertise is targeted.

Most blogs are easy to use, easy to setup. Templates can be customized if you are familiar with .css and .php scripting, if not, enlist the aid of someone you know who is. If you don't want to pay them, or can't afford to, offer them a free listing for their services in your blog's link section. Hand shaking like that is very good for business and can go a long way.

The important thing to remember with blogs and blogging is that it is a very effective tool if used properly. Make your blog entries full of quality content, informative about your product and business, and use soft sell techniques instead of blatant hard sell techniques. Throw in a few product pics with links back to your website. Consider it along the lines of a very effective daily brochure for your business and you'll be doing your business a big favor.

Monitor your traffic, and be sure to ping the blog each time you make an entry. Pinging gets the blog entry "out there" right away instead of in hours or days or whenever a blog spider or search engine spider makes their way over to you.

Make sure you add your blog URL with your website URL and your eBay store URL in your emails, in your forum siggies (where permitted), to your business cards, invoices, brochures, if you use customized address labels on packages, and on your contact page and policies page of your website, or in your website footer. If you run a small business forum, like I do, be sure to add it to your forum footer.

Add your blog to any of the blog directories that are out there, and there are many. Publicize as much as you can. In most blogs, (again, check the terms of use) you can sell your products directly in your blog with a link to your payment processor, negating the use for a website until you need one, or, use the blog as a test market for new products to see which ones take off.

Come up with a logo or header for your blog, and consider using different sizes of that logo as part of your business branding. If you've named your blog after your business, you can use those logos on your website, for your eBay store, in your blog itself, and a small version on your business cards.

Branding your business is the first step you need to take to begin your marketing campaign as well.

What is branding? It is capturing a "look" and / or catchphrase for your business that you use everywhere, on
everything, so that when people hear the business name, they automatically associate it with YOUR business.

A blog is free, and can work wonders for your business. So get out there and start blogging, post diligently and post quality helpful or informative information, combined with some soft selling and watch what it can do for your business!