There are blogs and then there are blogs. In the last post I was talking about meeting the bare minimum and taking things one step further. That is what makes an effective blog – going beyond what is required and reaching out to the people out there.

So what makes a business blog good? Those characteristics that help give your company a strong presence online.

Simple
There is no need to for too much flair – remember, content is what your readers are looking for. They want to find out what you have to offer and this means going straight to the point. Of course, pictures would not hurt either.

Dynamic
The web is dynamic and you have to keep up with it. You cannot rely on old and trusted ideas all the time. Browse the web for other business blogs and see how they do it. Then see if you can adopt some of their principles and make your own blog just as dynamic.

Fresh
The main purpose of blogging is to deliver fresh content on a regular basis. You cannot just create a blog and then forget about it. People come back to blogs because they want to read something new each time. That is why you should also set time aside for maintaining your business blog. Make sure that you will have something new to offer your readers each and everytime. Otherwise, your web presence might just as well be nil.

It is somewhat ironic that after contextual advertising took off giving businesses an alternative to the traditional way of advertising (renting ad space from websites) it was then that businesses, both large and small, came to realize the power of blogs in advertising and thus became more willing to rent ad space. The difference this time though is that advertisers have become more picky in the websites and blogs they choose to “rent ad space” from.

Renting ad space is really profitable. However, not all blogs will be able to really profit from this scheme. To be able to make a profit after all you need to be able to attract advertisers and prove to them that the space you are offering them will be worth the money they fork out. To be able to do this your blog must be/have:

• Really popular. Big companies (meaning big bucks) will only sponsor blogs that have high volume of traffic. This means that if your blog is really new and you’re still building readership then you’d better forget about this for the moment.
• Updated regularly and frequently. Advertisers want a constant stream of traffic for more ad exposure. While you might have tons of readers, if you only post once a week then your regular readers will only be visiting that frequently as well. Advertisers prefer blogs that are updated daily.
• A very good reputation. Some blogs may be popular but if they’re popular for all the wrong reasons then most advertisers will shy away from being linked to that blog. After all, your blog’s reputation will reflect on theirs.
• A solid theme. Businesses with the same target audience as you will be the ones attracted to your site. Without a solid theme your blog will not be as attractive since the ads might not be as effective.

Profiting through ads is no new concept. When targeted ads entered the scene though ads became a whole lot more profitable both for the advertisers and publishers. What’s even better is that anyone can now become a “publisher”. Bloggers are a prime example of ordinary people cashing in on ads. There are lots of opportunities out there for bloggers but only if you know where to look or at least how to look for them.

To help you get started making cash here are some ad opportunities you might want to check out.

Advertising Programs

• Google Adsense - They paved the way for contextual ads. Since veryone knows about Google Adsense there really isn’t any need to say more. You can also try Yahoo! Publisher Network and MSN Adcenter, which are both still in Beta.
• BlogAds - BlogAds blggers realy do make money. Right now the average blogger earns $50 a month although there are some that do earn up to $5000 a month! The problem with joining BlogAds is that it is by invite only. Of course, you can squeeze out an invite from one of your online friends.

Consumer Generated Ads

Consumer generated ads are ads made by the bloggers. Instead of depending on the advertiser to make a pitch, YOU will be the one to make the pitch and add a link to the website of the company or product you are promoting. If you are interested in this highly controversial ad technique then the best place to start is PayPerPost. Other consumer generated ad sites include LoudLaunch, Blogitive, and Blogsvertise.

A picture paints a thousand words – or so the saying goes. Call it cliché but I believe that this saying holds a large amount of truth. Now imagine your business blog. Why does it exist in the first place? There could be many answers to this question, I know, yet one of the main reasons businesses set up a blog of their own is to catch the attention of their customers. They want to gain new customers and retain old ones. I am sure that you don’t think differently.

So back to using pictures for your business blog…Let’s say that you offer a certain service. Whatever this service is, there might be aspects that you just cannot explain in words. Though words can be powerful, sometimes they are just not enough. What can you do? This is where pictures come in.

If you put photos in your blog detailing the service that you offer, you can present a visual image to your clients. They can see for themselves just exactly what you are offering to them. Sometimes, people need visuals in order to fully understand the message that you want to get across. Take for example a spa service detailing all that they have to offer. Contrast that with a post which has text and this picture:

Do you see what I mean?

Just a note on using pictures for blogging, though. Be careful to represent your product or service as realistically as possible. Sometimes, pictures can be larger than life. If this happens with your blog, then you might be in for customer dissatisfaction.

One of the core activities of any business is to gather information regarding their customers. In order to provide services or products which cater to their target market’s needs and preferences, a business has to have an accurate gauge of the market’s pulse, so to speak. As such, market research is one of the most important endeavors of any business.

Any businessman would know that in order to obtain results which are as accurate as can be, market research has to be conducted with as wide a coverage as possible. In order to achieve such a coverage, money has to be expended – a considerable amount. Yet there is another way to conduct market research without having to expend too many resources – both in terms of time, money, and personnel.

A business blog can do just that. Take the example of Stone Creek Coffee, a coffee store chain in the U.S. When they to make their presence felt online, they chose the blog to do the job. Tom Pionek, technology and marketing director, shares that their blog present more opportunities to interact with customers as compared to press releases and similar forms of business communications. Their blog also went on to serve as way of getting feedback from the customers – a form of market research.

According to consultant Dana Vanden Heuvel, blogs are “one of the largest free, for what that’s worth, market research test-beds. It goes beyond the focus groups and some of the other market-research vehicles that people have used in the past or companies have used in the past.”

With more and more people turning to the Internet for information, a business blog could give you the edge that you need.

Communication is the key to most relationships in society. From families to friendships to business relationships, communication is integral to the success of the interaction. In business, communication does not come automatically. Perhaps within the company, the flow of communication is a bit easier to facilitate.

The communication between customers and businesses may be a bit tricky, however. Despite the honest intentions from the business side to have a free exchange of ideas between them and the customer, you cannot blame the customer for thinking that there is a hidden agenda. After all, we want them to purchase our goods and services.

Advertisements and traditional media is the bridge between the corporation and the customers. Just how effective this method is, we cannot really discount as it has been working for countless years now. Yet taking things one step further – short of the CEO walking around and talking to customers face to face – the business can reach out to its clientele in a more personal manner through a blog.

Blogs, by their very nature, have a personal down-to-earth touch. Though we do have business blogs, people tend to associate blogs with a “real” person. If you take advantage of this fact and work your business blog as an ordinary person would, you can enjoy an open channel of communication between you and your customers.

You can post anything relating to your products, your services, and maybe even insider tips. At the same time, customers who read your blog would have the chance to air out their concerns and questions through the comments section. In this way, your blog serves as a venue for open forum, which is always good in the eyes of customers.

For many businesses – if not all – influencing the way of thinking of the general public is quite important. In fact, it could be critical for some. How is this so? Think about it this way – if you establish yourself as a credible source of information and people believe you, they would, to a certain extent, do what you say and behave accordingly. This is important for a business when it comes to establishing the quality and worth of your product or service. Essentially, this is what marketing and advertising is about. You engage in these activities in order to make people aware of what you have to offer and to have them believe that you are offering only the best for them. You are influencing public opinion.

How about if you can all the above for a much lesser price? I am talking about blogs. Due to the boom the blogosphere has experienced in the past few years, there have been many studies conducted on its effects on people. I have good news for you – people tend to rely a lot on the information that they gather from blogs.

With this in mind, what is keeping you from engaging in blogging? A blog for your business will probably be visited more than your main web site. People would tend to look for fresher information which is reliable. Having a good business blog would not only establish you as an authority in your field but will also help mould the opinions of readers to your advantage.

A business blog can bring many advantages – that is the general consensus. Yet many times, this sweeping statement is not really backed up with concrete ideas and information. Here is one incentive for businessmen who are not yet fully convinced of a blog’s power to increase your presence online – a blog can position you as an expert in the field.

Before delving into how a blog can do this, let me answer another question: “So what if I can acquire expert status?” Isn’t it pretty obvious? Take any topic under the sun – say, English learning online. If the average person wants to know more about this topic, what does he normally do? Consult with someone he believes to be knowledgeable in the matter, right? In the absence of “real” people he can consult in “real time” what does he do? He goes to his computer and searches for reputable sources online.

Now if you have expert status – that is, if you gain that reputation of being knowledgeable in your field, you will have countless people knocking at your door.

So how can you acquire this status with a business blog? Simple, maintain an active blog with regular posts. Make sure that the content is updated and indeed accurate as befitting an authority in your field. Of course, you would also have to engage in some promotion so that your blog can be discovered by readers. If you are starting from scratch, your readership may be limited but with great content and proper marketing, you will be reaping the benefits before you know it.

Blogs are everywhere and they have their own pros and cons. It is about time that businesses – big or small – realize and accept that. No matter how some people may want to ignore this fact, it does not really change. Have you ever thought about how you can use blogging to expose a new product or idea?

I am sure there are some of you who are thinking “but we have our marketing and promotions campaign taking care of that already!” Here’s my question to you then: “Exactly how much are you spending on that campaign?” I would not want to guess, really.

Blogging, on the other hand, presents a cost effective alternative. If you already have a blog for your business then it would be a small matter to present something new. If you don’t have a blog set up yet, it is quite simple to get that done.

So how does a blog help you get the exposure that a new or a relatively unknown idea or product? Many times, the case is that customers or prospective customers do not have a clear idea of what you have to offer. Other forms of advertising and marketing can probably get the point across given enough time and resources. However, that would cost an arm and a leg. On the other hand, a blog can be as detailed and as specific as you like regarding a product or an idea. Customers – prospective or otherwise – can then be more informed about your product. This can then easily translate into more business for you.

I was watching two guys digging a hole to locate a pipe in my yard this morning. They were tossing the dirt out of the hole and directly onto the ground beside it. They went four feet down and dug a hole that was about 8 feet long by three feet across. Then, one of them found a pipe…and the elbow joining it to the pipe they really wanted to find. Anyone want to guess where the new pipe was? Under that massive pile of dirt. This brings me to a great business principle:

Don’t move the same dirt twice.

When you start a new task, take some time to plan things out so you can do the job right the first time. You don’t want to find that you’ve gone in the wrong direction and will have to re-do hours of work. I’m sure the guys in my side yard are wishing they would have tossed their dirt into a few wheelbarrows right about now. Then, they could have just dumped those wheelbarrows back into the old hole instead of slowly shoveling it back in.