Do you have a Blog on your website?

Do you write a news blog for your site that keeps people coming back for more? If not, you're missing out on the perfect opportunity to market your site or your product. When people sign up for a newsletter, they're holding the door open for you.

Before you start your new blog, think through these ideas:

1. What is your goal in writing the news blog? Do you want to market your site, or your services/product?

2. Who will be reading the news blog? Do you have a list of people who have subscribed from your site? What demographic information do you know about them? Your attitude should depend on this.

3. What can you say in your blog to achieve your goal? How do you connect your readers to your services/product?

Writing a good newsletter – one that catches the reader’s attention and appeals to him/her in some way – isn't a mysterious, difficult thing, but there are a few things to remember as you write.

· First, forget about using exclamation points. Write in a friendly way; don't sound like you are attempting to sell them something. Read your newsletter out loud, and if it sounds silly, it probably is.

· Readers want to know what you're talking about. Get straight to the point of what you want to say. Make room for a special tip or secret that they won't find easily anywhere else – even on your site. This keeps up the interest and keeps you from losing subscribers.

· Link to your site and don't be shy about it. If what you're saying interests people, they'll want more of it. How many times do people read a blog or newsletter from top to bottom looking for a link to the meat the blog/newsletter promised, and give up?

· Don't give it all away, though, and don't fill your blog with nothing but links. Give the reader a taste of what they will find on your site. The idea is to whet the appetite, not satisfy it.

· Use a part of your blog to interest the reader, then give them the URL in a clickable form so they can go read the rest of it. Make it as easy as you can for your reader to get from your blog to your site.

· Break up the text into paragraphs of two or three sentences. Long, run on paragraphs are hard to read and most readers will lose interest quickly. Your job is to keep them interested in what you have to say.

· Never write anything that could possibly be construed to be an insult or demeaning in any way to anyone – gender, race, religion and politics included.

· Include things like “Feel free to send/forward this blog to a friend.” If you want to encourage return email, include a clickable return address, thus: mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com

· Spell check – proofread and edit thoroughly! Let it cool for a few hours and read it again. Be meticulous in grammar. If you can, have someone else proofread it. It's hard to catch your own mistakes.

When you're satisfied that you've done your very best, hit the 'send' button. You've just impressed hundreds or even thousands of people. Isn't the power of the internet wonderful!