How many times have you heard it as a website owner, "You have to get a blog! You have to write a weblog to increase traffic!" To be certain, Internet marketing has expanded beyond the proper combination of keywords in your META tags and saturated content on your landing page. Internet users trust websites laden with relevant content, and search engines give more credence to websites regularly producing that content. Implementing a weblog into your website can make for an integral tool in promoting your business, services, and products.

A weblog, or blog, is a type of website in which content is posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order, not unlike a newsfeed, journal or diary. Weblogs are most often created through specialized content management software that allows for instantly publication, unlike a regular website where you may have to update and upload via FTP. Blogging management is more sophisticated in that users may publish to the Internet with a click of the mouse.

Blogs have come into popularity in recent years due to ease of publication. Blogging software is readily available for advanced users, and people who know little about web design may register onto a free blogging service and create a blog in mere minutes. For the online entrepreneur, blogging present many advantages:

Blogging is free!

Weblog software is often presented as a third-party web-based system, applicable to your website with the proper FTP information or onto an ad-supported free site. A number of weblog companies offer their services and software for free, some in exchange for volunteer donations, others in exchange for obligatory advertising. If you are active writer, you can launch a weblog as your main site for free without having to worry about extraneous costs in online marketing.

Blogging helps establish your style!

While many people use blogs to record personal thoughts, creative writing, and random facts, others use blogs to relay political and industrial news and opinion. Many companies, media organizations, and other entities may use blogs to advertise services and items, or relay news faster. Once you get into your personal "blogging zone," you may detect a personal style that attracts readers. If you operating a consulting business, for example, you may use your blog to relay helpful tips to readers and advertise further services. A published author may record adventures in public booksignings and conventions, while the owner of a craft and hobby store may offer pictures of new product or fun project ideas.

Blogs may also be interactive and employ the use of audio media, images, and comment sections for readers to leave feedback. The more opportunities you allow for users to communicate with you through your weblog, the great the opportunity for an increase in business.

An owner of a music-oriented website may be able to embed audio clips into a weblog to showcase represented artists or the owner's own work. This practice is also known as podcasting. Feedback can be collected in comments sections by listeners, which are published instantly as each user relays a message. This in turn can also help reduce SPAM to your inbox by eliminating the need to post an e-mail address.

Blogging is search-friendly!

The amount of fresh, relevant content available on blogs, as opposed to traditional websites, has in recent time captured the attention of the search industry. Google has made available specialized search for blog content, and new search engines geared specifically toward blog content search are finding popularity. News and current issue weblogs, especially, gain much from the growing attention of search resources

It is due to the continuing importance of blog content that SEOs may recommend websites to add blogs and blog content, as blog content tends to be spidered and indexed at a faster rate than traditional weblog content. Blog content may also be syndicated and aggregated into RSS readers for wider exposure. If you are using a third party blog management system, you may find your content is already syndicated via an XML file that is updated with every new post you make. A quick search on the Internet, too, can lead to you numerous compendium sites offering helpful tools to enhance your blog's visibility and usability.

Affiliate Yourself!

Especially if you are an author, musician, or retailer with product sold through third parties, you can use your weblog to generate income. Affiliate marketing is fast becoming a popular method of e-commerce. Serious affiliate commerce experts set up sites unique to the product they wish to market and acquire data feed information from various stories with which they "affiliate." Every time a customer clicks through a link on an affiliate site to purchase a product, the owner of that site makes a small percentage of the sale. If done and marketed properly, one could do well to earn a steady stream of cash through affiliate marketing.

Using affiliate links on your weblog can work to your advantage as well. Say you have a book you wish to promote and it's listed on Amazon.com, BN.com, and other book retailers. Many of these online stores have affiliate programs which allow site owners to use a specially coded URL on their pages to direct traffic to the main store to shop. The code lets Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble know the customers are coming from the affiliated sites, so the affiliate gets a share of each sale.

As an author, you can sign up as an affiliate to promote your own works and collect affiliate income in addition to the royalties you stand to make from the original sale! Same with musicians selling CDs, crafters selling their gifts, and so on.

For an author or retailer of a niche product, an attractive website is an important tool for marketing via the Internet. Your website is your calling card, the ultimate presentation of your work, and as such delivers to visitors the relevant information needed to entice them into purchasing. Search engine optimization tactics like good use of META data and keywords, HTML content that is friendly to search, and strong link popularity can be helpful in driving traffic to your site, but ultimately the best method of promoting your work is to write about your work, and do it often. Updating a website at a constant rate, however, can be a chore, which is why having a blog attached to your site can be an effective tool in online marketing. Get noticed, get a blog, and get to writing!