• By William Gold
• Published 02/22/2011
• Article Writing

The internet has been a primary concern for advertising basically since its invention, and as the internet evolves, advertising so too does with it. Among the vast amount of esoteric idioms and colloquialisms to enter the modern lexicon following the advent of the internet, “blog” has become one of the most popular, and therefore it’s no surprise that blog marketing has become an effective method of advertising. A portmanteau of the words Web and Log, a blog is a type of website whose content is primarily regularly updated entries comprised of commentary on a given subject, journalistic descriptions of events, media, or other content. A lot of blogs function as personal diaries for their writers, while others might be a firsthand account of some unique experience. A very effective way of article marketing as well as an essential part of business. Others may be about various travel locations, cuisine, live entertainment, or any genre or format of entertainment. What differentiates a blog from any other topical website is its interactivity with users. Readers can leave comments and rate entries, as well as communicate and message other readers. Because a blog is so flexible by definition and yet able to reach such a wide audience, it is a perfect vehicle for advertising products or services, hence blog marketing.

Blog marketing is practiced by a company by advertising their products or services through topical articles related to

their business. It is very similar in practice to article marketing, only blog marketing specifically applies to marketing articles appearing on blogs, as opposed to those appearing on other types of websites or online publications. In any case, articles are written on a topic that is tangential to whatever the company is selling – so for instance, a company selling cell phones might write an article about the cultural impact of the cellular phone. This article is then hosted on a blog that is either owned by the company, or offered as free content to blogs. The articles are then either laden with hyperlinks to forward readers to the company’s website or at least contain post-scripted references directing readers there. As opposed to conventional advertisements that are designed for exposure to as many people as possible, blog marketing aims to attract its specific target audience by being readily available and relevant. By using concise, informative articles, blog marketing aims to attract customers to a website by first appealing to their sense of curiosity and then drawing them towards that website with enlightening content.

To use the above example, an article about the benefits of smartphones might spark interest in readers to look into buying a smartphone for themselves (or perhaps switching to a different variety of smartphone). Then having read the article, the hyperlinks or references are conveniently placed to lead the reader towards the website from which they can investigate smartphones in greater depth and potentially become a customer.