If you're looking to grow your business, then a BLOG is a great tool to add to your tool chest. In this article we will discuss BLOG basics and how you can use them in your business.

1. What's a BLOG?

What's a BLOG you ask? Well, let me tell you. According to Wikipedia.com:

A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order [newest entries are at the top].

We have all had them, those great inspirational ideas that wake us up in the middle of the night wanting to come alive and make us money. Many of these ideas even look good later in the light of day. Unfortunately, all too often as the days and weeks move on, the idea becomes lost in the daily grind. What could have been a profitable thought is all too soon forgotten because it wasn't acted upon.

As with all technology, there are positives and negatives. This is evident with the web as a new marketing source. Most products are becoming a fast commodity, even if they were not before. If you are interested in buying a chair, you can quickly search on Google, eBay, or any other major search engine, and you will instantly find all chairs of the kind that you are looking for.

Who said that? We did. Someone else said it first, but that's not important. What is important is your recognition that change is an integral part of life and if you don't incorporate it into your business, sooner or later you will be left behind.

Now for those conservative minded readers who still wear bow ties and Brooks Brothers suits, we will gladly acknowledge that exceptions abound.

It is no secret that we live in the age of information overload. No matter where we look, eat, sleep or breathe, we are bombarded with information. The problem is that our potential clients are too. So how do we cut through the clutter?

For starters, we have to build credibility with our audience and get them to begin looking for our messages, because they know that what we say has value.

The best new ideas are often old ideas brought back to life. Sometimes the ideas are altered to fit particular circumstances but, many times, the application is altered to fit current circumstances.

Over twenty years ago, when I was in the financial services industry, I decided to alter our business from commission-based to charging a monthly fee based on a percentage of assets.

There's no doubt that at some point in your career you've had a new product to sell, a new service you're offering or some other piece of news that you knew would make a great story in a magazine or newspaper which could provide some great free marketing for you. The next thing that probably crossed your mind- how could you make that happen?

For most people, the problem is that they stop right there, at the "wondering" stage and just have no idea how to go from having a great story to tell to getting written up in a local or national publication.

Over the last few years, there is no denying that the online community has started harnessing the power of the Internet for more than just "surfing" the web to look for information. We have now started using it as a networking tool that allows us to connect with others to share ideas, opinions and videos of ourselves looking like fools. Okay, so hopefully we don't have too many of those videos; but having some video online, and at the major video sharing sites, is a great search engine traffic strategy that we should all be employing.