Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal, take on just about anything and everything under the sun, commentary.

As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.

[ad#post-side]Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1. Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product, or the product you’re promoting. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.
2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.
3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free web time is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.
4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.
5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:
   • By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.
   • By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blog site. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.
   • By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.
   • By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.
   • By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

WordPress is an amazing content management system (cms) and blogging system and can be used for just about any type of website you can imagine.

With the right WordPress plugins, you can make your WP install do just about anything and almost all of the plugins out there are free. There are some “Premium” plugins you can find that have a fee attached, but all in all, most are free.

But most importantly, it’s a great program for running you’re websites because…

• Search engines love WordPress blogs and index them much faster than static websites
• It’s easy to build a community in your niche around your website with the built in commenting system
• It’s open source, which means you can have anything you want done to it, and most of the plugins for it are free
• It’s easy to become an authority in your niche fast with a good blog
• You can easily manage your website content without having any special skills

But there is a ton of stuff you can use WordPress for other than a normal blog, and most people never even think of theses things. Which means they’re throwing great search engine optimization and faster website exposure right out the window

Here are 6 examples of what you can use WordPress for, and the plugins to help if any are needed.

1. A Blog - for this you really don’t have to have any plugins at all. You can just use WordPress right out of the box and you’re on your way.
2. An Article Directory - Most people out there don’t know this, but WordPress is the perfect article directory system. Every article you enter into your WordPress article directory get’s all of the benefits of a normal blog (pinging, comments, SEO) but also has the added benefits of easier article management.There’s a great free plugin that allows you to add a article directory type style to your blog over at: http://articlesss.com/article-directory-wordpress-plugin/
3. A Classified Site - You can take WordPress and turn it into a classified site in no time flat. Just grab the wp-classified plugin and you’re ready to go. This plugin allows you to have a classified directory right in your WordPress blog. Your visitors can selling their goods from your site, or find other people’s classifieds that interest them.Here’s the wp-classified plugin page:
   http://www.forgani.com/tools/wpclassified-plugins/
4. A Link Directory - You can use a link directory to swap links with other websites, or just offer it as a place for people to list their websites. This is a good way to get relevant link backs to your blog to. Become an authority in your niche for a place to find links or just offer the links directory as a service to your blog members.Grab a good link directory plugin at: http://themoneymakingwebsite.com/wp-directory-list/
5. A Salesletter For Your Product - WordPress has a feature built into it that allows you to pick a page you want to show as your home page all of the time. With this feature, you can easily create a new page in WordPress with your products salesletter on it, then make it the blogs static front page. This way no matter who visits your blogs main page, they see your salesletter.The good thing about this is, you still get all of the benefits of a normal blog because you can still do blog posts as normal, you still get all of the pinging power and people that place positive comments on your blog, are instant testimonials for you.Imagine being able to get free traffic to your new salesletter within hours of it going live online! Well, with WordPress as your salesletter you can
6. A Shopping Cart - Yes, you can turn WordPress into a shopping cart that offers multiple items for sale. And it’s built right into your WordPress blog. Think about that. Having a full blown shopping cart online with the power of WordPress behind it. It just blows your mind.You can get a free shopping cart plugin (very good plugin to) at: http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/

There’s a lot more you can do with WordPress. You just need to use your imagination.

And the really powerful thing here, is that since WordPress is open source you can literally have what ever you want programmed for you, and add it to your WordPress blog as plugin.

Use your imagination and turn your WordPress blog into something that blows your mind.

If you’ve been into blogging at all, or if you’ve been just getting into blogging, you’ve most likely heard the same thing from loads and loads of people from all walks of life online.

What am I talk about?

Tell me if you’ve read this before online?

“WordPress is the best blogging system available today“.

But why?

Well, WordPress has a lot of benefits, features and even income generating aspects to it that most other blogging platforms don’t.

WordPress provides…

1. An easy way to publish content online without having to know ANY html, design or programming skills
2. Makes getting free traffic from the search engines easy as type, publish and wait
3. Easy to find plugins that make expanding your WordPress system to levels no other system can
4. Easy website monetization – make money online
5. Tons of professional designs to choose from
6. Content syndication
7. Community building via comments and more

And the list goes on and on and on.

But one of the things I like best about WordPress, is that you can quickly become an expert in any field online just by typing some text into a field, clicking the “Publish” button and letting WordPress do the rest.

Think about! One of the ways we become known as an expert in any field is to publish good, relevant content that people can read and get to know you for. Once you start publishing on a regular basis, getting listed in the search engines and getting involved in other communities, ‘Guru’ status is just around the corner for you in that given niche.

But, WordPress would be the first step in this process.

When you have a WordPress blog, you then have a website you can link to that other people will see. You provide content on that blog, articles, snippets of information and reviews of products, tools and services in that niche (what ever niche you might be in), and people will start to look at YOU as one the trusted one, in-the-know and eventually even as a Super-Star in that niche.

So Why Am I Sharing This With You?

Well, I’m going to start sharing everything I know about WordPress with you right here on this blog.

I’m going to start giving your information, reviews, ideas and tips on using WordPress and more.

I want to help YOU, and everyone else I can, to become a “WordPress Master” so you to can start seeing the huge success having a WordPress blog brings with it.

Keep your eyes open, join the update list (top right on this blog) and get ready to be the next WordPress Whiz Kid