...not unless you read other blogs.

If you already have a website that gets some traffic, your blog should be integrated into your existing site's structure. By doing this, any SEO benefit derived from the content of your blog will be applied to your site... you know, the place where you have all kinds of opportunities to generate leads, right? You may be tempted to save money by setting up your blog at another URL, using a free blogging tool, but this will not be worth the effort. If your blog is at a different URL, any search generated traffic driven to your blog will, in effect, be taking away from your main website.

Read Other Blogs to Stay Informed
Writing isn't the only work you'll have to do to maintain a blog. You'll also need to find and start reading other blogs that deal with the same topics that you write about. Being familiar with the larger conversation is crucial to both gaining readers and being properly informed on those subjects that you plan to write about. Use a feed reader (we like Google Reader) to subscribe to the RSS feeds for these blogs and get into the habit of reading through your feeds daily. If you've come to the determination that blogging is important enough to your web strategy to actually create one, you'll also need to realize the importance for making time to read other blogs. Once you've done that, you'll probably find yourself asking how anyone could possibly keep up with the amount of information delivered via RSS to their computer every day... (Here's how.)

Leave Comments, but don't spam.
Regularly reading other blogs will help you stay informed, but it won't help you to get noticed. Remember, at this point, you're just lurking (not that there's anything wrong with that!). However, at some point you'll probably have something to add to the conversation that's happening in the comment threads of the blogs you're reading. That's a good thing, and you should do it. Most blogs allow you to add links to your comment, so if you have a blog post or webpage that is relevant to your comment, this is your chance to share it with the community. The more you participate by sharing insightful and valuable comments, the more you'll be able to share links without spamming the other readers of the blog. Participating in this way is crucial for developing recognized authority in regard to your area of expertise.   next >