Entering the blogosphere-Don't Rush In

Today I will continue to cover blogs. Though I am addicted to blogs, I never really covered them in this newsletter. I wasn't sure anyone shared my passion for them. But as time went on I have received more and more emails asking about blogs, RSS, and social media in general. Why am I noticing more interest in blogs? Why is my email being flooded with blog questions? I think it may be two fold. First off, some of you might be hearing a lot of buzz surrounding blogs and now you want to know the scoop. More and more news papers and magazines are covering the blog craze. Second, blogs are empowering. You can start one for free and begin publishing and syndicating your message in virtually no time at all. Last week I introduced you to some new terminology, all blog related, and called it The New Marketing Glossary. Hopefully I explained those new terms well and you are more comfortable with blogging. I'll dedicate most of this week to blog tips and tackle search engine marketing next week.

Summing up the blogosphere in a newsletter is impossible. So instead I have decided to guide you down a path so that you can better understand blogs on your own terms based on your own interests.

Blogs are not about overt marketing and hard sell. Blogs are not landing pages. Blogs are there to sell a person or a brand, (most likely person), that you can relate to. Blogging is a conversational medium powered by people, not quotas.

"But how do I use blogs for marketing??"

Blogs are about people, so is marketing. People like to talk, interact, and participate. Blogs facilitate those things by using transparency and casualness to create trust and develop authority. When people can trust you, relate to your style, and find valuable information they will be more likely to start a conversation with you. Blogs are great marketing tools because they are free, easy to understand and navigate, and ultimately put a human face on your brand (which is what all brands are trying to do anyway). Engage your public and compell them to interact, this is the key to blogging.

Conversation, Interaction, Participation
Don't rush into the blogophere. Take the time to play with it a little first. Start as a curious voyeur, get familiar with the lingo, and then move from there. Your first move should be to start reading some blogs and following them. Join the conversation, speak up by leaving comments or emailing the author. Blogs are all about conversation. Below are some of my personal favorite blogs about marketing...
http://www.micropersuasion.com/
http://www.adotas.com/
http://www.marketingvox.com/

After you start really reading blogs you'll find yourself sliding down the rabbit hole. Before you know it you have found many blogs all about a topic that concerns you. Comment on them, ask questions, interact. But how else can you interact with the blogophere? Why not find even more blogs! After you have read a few blogs and commented a bit you should make an effort to expand the horizon. Find blogs on other topics and read those. Later I'll teach you how to subscribe to these blogs with RSS so you don't have to visit each one. To find cool blogs and blog content your best bet is going to http://technorati.com/, a very popular blog search engine currently tracking 37.7 million sites and 2.4 billion links. You can search for keywords used inside posts, search for blogs about a certain topic, or search for posts that have been "tagged" by the author. Tags are just keyword the author uses to describe their post.

Participation is final step to joining the blogosphere. After you are comfortable with how the conversation works you should launch your own platform for spreading ideas. Here are two great, and very popular, blog platforms used, both with free versions: Blogger.com and Typepad.com