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There are many reasons you should start a blog. Since I don’t know what business you are in, I am going to stick to the major overall benefits of blogging. I have been blogging for only a few short years. Since deploying the jiveSYSTEMS Blog last December, I have learned a tremendous amount.  For those of you who are bloggers, we have a bounce rate of less than 20%. Our site has an Alexa rank of 131,323 which is in the top 0.47 % of all sites on web. This blog currently has a Technorati rank of 1,605,221, which puts it in the top 2.29% of blogs tracked by Technorati. Granted these may not be impressive stats in comparison to power bloggers like Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, and others. But I feel they are a modest achievement, for a guy with a laptop that barely passed English class in school. And these stats are going to improve, now that we have started to promote this blog. What I am aiming to say is “If I can do it, you can too!”

So here it goes, below I have listed the 5 major reasons you should start a blog:

Create and Sustain a Conversation about Your Business
In my opinion, blogging is the single most beneficial thing you can do to promote your business online.  This is because websites, squeeze pages, and landing pages cannot create and sustain a relationship with your prospects and clients; whereas a Blog can.

Improve Your Ranking in Search Engine Results
Everyone wants to know the magic recipe for search engine domination.  While I do not claim to know the complete formula, I do know several strategies that will improve your ranking in the search engines. Each post you write creates an indexed page on your site. The more indexed pages your site has, the higher you will rank in the search engine. The next step is creating lots of quality backlinks to your pages.

Nurture Relationships
The key to selling is teaching. A blog is the perfect place to nurture relationships. You need to educate your prospects on the value of your products and services. The same holds true for your customers. Also, when your prospects and customers can find the information they need online, they will call and email your customer support team less frequently. This will improve the overall profitability of your company.

Refine Your Thoughts
Writing helps you refine your thoughts.  Marketing and sales are all about communicating.  Sales are the result of your prospects resonating with your message.  Sure, you can hire a copywriter, but they are rarely tapped into the pulse of your business, as intimately as you are.  Now, I am not saying you need to write all your copy and blog posts.  You can merely provide the foundation.  For the past year, I have been consistently writing one article per day.  It used to take me 2 to 3 hours to write a post like this.  Now I can do it in less than 60 minutes.  It is definitely time well spent.

Advertise Your Business for Free
Corporations and small business alike spend a lot of money advertising.  An ever growing percentage of their budget is being spent on banner advertising online.  You can advertise your products and services in banner spots on your blog.  This strategy can bring new business to your door and facilitate up-sells as well.  For those of you who are a little more adventurous, your banner spots could also be used for cross-promotion and affiliate relationships.

Every business should have a blog. The sooner you deploy one the better. A blog will not only help your business grow, it will help you grow as well.

Do you have a blog?  If you do, please take a moment to share with our readers some of the ways your blog has helped you.  Please feel free to leave a comment with a question about blogging and I will reply with the answer promptly. After all, I am here to serve you.