Still another advantage to creating and maintaining a

Still another advantage to creating and maintaining a blog is customer interaction. A standard blog feature allows viewers to post comments and feedback on individual entries. You can set your blog to allow comments from anyone, even anonymous visitors (however, if your blog provides a word verification feature, you should turn it on to avoid spam comments...oh yes, spam is everywhere).

The blog format you choose will vary according to the type of business you run. If you run a consultation practice, make note of your clients' successes as they occur (be sure to get the client's permission before you write about them!). If you are selling a product, you can use a blog to keep consumers updated about company and industry developments. You can also transform a blog into an online resource center for information relating to your product or services. Find a few interesting links every day to related web sites and give visitors something new to look forward to every time they visit your site.

How do you get a blog? You can either maintain a separate blog from your web site, or use a web host that integrates blogging software with their packages. If you set up a separate blog, be sure to link to it from every page of your web site, and link back to your web site from your blog. Most blog hosting companies provide blog accounts free of charge. The most popular blog provider is Blogger.com (powered by search engine giant Google), followed closely by LiveJournal.com. Blog hosts generally provide customizable templates in a wide variety of styles, so you can find one that matches your web site.

Plastering Your Web Site: Internet Advertising Techniques

For any virtual corporation, visibility is the key. The more people are able to find your web site, the more visitors you will be able to convert to customers. As a business owner, you must create and manage an ongoing advertising campaign to attract web site traffic. A successful advertising campaign consists of several components that work together to get the word out about your company.

Keywords and optimization. Keywords are words or short phrases relating to your business that people are most likely to use in search engines when they're looking for a company like yours. Optimization is the strategic use of keywords in your web copy in order to make your site more visible to search engines. Take note of the word "strategic." Overuse of keywords not only makes your web copy come across as stilted and awkward, it can also get your site banned from search engines.

While writing your web copy, have a list of keywords and phrases handy to refer to, and use them as often as possible while keeping your copy sounding natural. For example, if your company is Flowers Forever, your keywords might include: flowers, fresh flowers, floral, arrangements, floral arrangements, occasion, special occasion, birthday, anniversary, wedding, gift, birthday gift, anniversary gift, wedding gift.

Here is an example of poorly written, keyword-driven web copy: