Tonight I am going to be talking about the benefits of blogging for your business.  Here is my handout.

1. You can update your Blog/Website yourself
2. Your blog becomes your central repository for all articles, news items, announcements and events. It’s database driven, so it’s searchable.
3. “Search-friendliness” is built into the blog.
4. Blogs are easy ways to add depth to your web site; Each blog post is indexed as a page in search engines. (just Google NJAWBO Blogging Event)
5. Your blog post title can automatically be displayed as a tweet in your Twitter account.
6. It’s easy to integrate multi-media in posts – Slideshows from Flickr; YouTube Video.
7. Your blog can be linked from your Linkedin account.
8. Drive traffic to your website/blog by including the link on a Facebook update.
9. Your blog demonstrates your expertise- good for attracting press.
10. With a blog you’ll be cool, hip, and you can now call yourself a blogger.

Resources:

• Wordpress.org   Free open source software for integrating a blog into a web site or building a standalone blog. Self hosted (company.com/company_blog); you’ll need your webmaster to accomplish this.
• Wordpress.com  Free open source hosted blogging solution not on your domain (company.wordpress.com).
• Blogger.com  Free Google hosted blogging solution not on your domain.
• Montclair Adult School; www.adultschool.org Registration begins Feb 1, 2010;  Web Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs & Small Business March 23, 2010;  Planning an Effective Web Presence for Entrepreneurs & Small Business; 2 sessions March 2, 2010 and March 9, 2010