Blogging has become quite popular for small businesses as of late. I have noticed on PR Leads that there are several story requests for experts to talk about the benefits of blogging for small businesses. So, I decided I better do my homework and see what this is all about. It turns out that there are several benefits to blogging for small businesses. Here are the most important ones:
1. Blogging Software is Super Easy to Use: Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. I use the software blogger.com. It took me 2 minutes to set up my account and 3 minutes to publish my first blog. Check out my blog at: http://uplevelstrategies.blogspot.com/
2. Build Relationships Online: Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. You have the opportunity to share a piece of yourself with your community allowing them to get to know you better.
3. Higher Search Engine Rankings: Search engine marketing is hot. Business bloggers are achieving top search engine rankings because search engines rank based on link popularity and easy to index regular content among other factors. Learning the basic skills of search engine optimization and good content management are keys to better rankings for bloggers.
4. Easy Communication: The biggest benefit of Blogging or RSS (see definition below) for your web audience can prove to be a better solution for notification than websites themselves or email. As indicated by Bill Gates in a speech at the Microsoft CEO Summit 2004 in Redmond, Washington: “if you just put information on a Web site, then people don't know to come visit that Web site, and it's very painful to keep visiting somebody's Web site and it never changes. It's very typical that a lot of the Web sites you go to that are personal in nature just eventually go completely stale and you waste time looking at it… And so, getting away from the drawbacks of e-mail -- that it's too imposing -- and yet the drawbacks of the Web site -- that you don't know if there's something new and interesting there – this [blogs & RSS] is about solving that.”
Definitions:
RSS - RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, an XML format for distributing news headlines on the Web, also known as syndication. First started by Netscape as part of the My Netscape site, it expanded through Dave Winner and User land.
Blog - Weblog, web log or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic posts on a common webpage. These posts are often but not necessarily in reverse chronological order. Such a website would typically be accessible to any Internet user.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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how can a co. as big as bank of america--take closed credit cards and put money on the card and expect senior citzens that are disabled pay this money back to them--even if they don't owe it?????? i had a credit card in 2007-the bank was always sending access checks-after calling bank of america-i used 1 access check for $2,000.00-after a couple of weeks my bank notified me that this check bounced-i had a credit limit of $7,500.00-i called and closed and canceled this card (which was clear)--on april 24,2008 bank of america pulled this closed and canceled credit card and put this $2,000.00 back on my closed account--then harrassing statements started-i would call bank of america and explain (i do not owe this) then harrassing letters and late night phone calls-i told them (i do not owe this)--then -late credit reports- finally july 3, 2008 they called and said i was right-i did not owe this--after ruining my life and my credit now they are sorry and want to forget it=i can not drop this-and let other senior citzens be taken by bank of america-check out miller VS bank of america-i want a letter of apoligy and a small settlement --clean my credit report-- one of the bank member told me this was fraud--of course they can't find this one truthful man--probably fired!!!!!-
admrlsqtrs@aol.com
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