A picture can be worth a thousand clicks

When optimizing your content you probably know to employ all of the techniques pertaining to keyword density and the like in order to attract the search engines, but what you may not know is that there is another tactic that you can use as Google bait. Including images in your posts will cause the Google Image Search spider to crawl and index your site. If you plan to employ this technique, then be sure to name your images with keywords relevant to the post in which they will be appearing. Also, make sure to include relevant keywords within the ALT tag.

If you can get an image indexed that proves to be popular, then you can draw a serious number of visitors to your site. Some would argue that traffic from Google Image Search isn't valuable in terms of building a loyal readership, but they aren't considering one very important fact. If a visitor is going to be interested in your content, then it doesn't matter what means they used to locate your blog just so long as they discovered it.

Helping them helps you

If you are trying to build backlinks, as well as your reputation, then you should considering doing a little networking. Specifically, you should contact site owners and bloggers within your niche and inquire as to whether they would be agreeable to your providing content as a guest blogger. While it may seem counterproductive to supply your competition with content when you could be using that time to grow the content on your own blog this technique can actually prove to be time well-spent. Your appearance as a guest blogger will serve two purposes. It will act as an endorsement by the site owner that says to readers that you are an authority that can be trusted. In addition, you will be able to grow your backlinks by including a link to your site either within your contribution, the byline, or in the author's bio box. Guest blogging is a win-win situation because it allows you to reap valuable benefits while benefiting your fellow blogger as well.

Create a sense of community by commenting

If you are like most bloggers after you publish a post you forget about it in favor of creating new content. Sure, you might read a comment here or there, but do you take the opportunity to interact with your readers? There is nothing worse than having a one-sided conversation and, if your blog visitors are submitting comments, but you aren't replying, then that is the sort scenario that they find themselves in. By replying to these comments you will be able to create an even more interactive experience and a sense of community for your visitors. You will provide them with another reason to return to your site in order to read your reply and, perhaps, add another comment of their own. This is also a great way to humanize yourself to your readers. Let them know that there is a person behind the post. It is in this way that you will be able to engender a sense of loyalty among your readers. It is when they begin to view you as a person that they will become even more invested in your success.

Public Relations blogs/PR blogs

Blogging for business has many goals, not the least of which is managing public relations functions. To learn more about blogging for business and PR blogs, checkout John Cass's columns on PR, marketing, and the Internet. Cass hosts his blog, PR Communications, on TypePad's blog hosting service. Another great resource is GlobalPRblogweek.com. This online forum gathered 35 communications pros together for one week during which they published 60 articles and interviews on the impact of personal publishing on public relations. The archive of articles from this annual event is accessible for free at the organization's Web site, and planning is underway for the next Global PR Blog Week.

Corporate blogs

Corporations are embracing blogging for business more and more as a means of connecting with customers, managing thorny public relations matters, and building a book of business. Red Hat, an internationally-acclaimed technology company, did a road show where executives made stops in seven cities. During the road show, executives and lower level staffers maintained blogs that included updates on what was happening on the tour. Red Hat executives also answered questions that came up during each stop on the tour. The blogs allowed the company to capture contact information from 2,500 individuals and businesses. The Big Blog Company (no joke!) specializes developing corporate blogs for small and big business alike, including marketing blogs and pr blogs.

Making money using blogs

Blogging for business is here to stay, and blogging money is yours for the making. There are all sorts of ways to make money using blogs. You can sell ad space using Google's free AdSense service. You sign up for service with AdSense, and Google plunks up to three content-specific ads on your blog. If a visitor to your blog clicks these ads, you get credit. For every $100 in credits you earn, Google will send you a check. If you'd rather control which ads run on your blog, you can sign up for free at Blogads.com. Companies from virtual unknowns to media big-wigs search for suitable blogs in the Blogads.com database and purchase ad space. You set your own rates, approve or deny ads based on your own criteria, and your income is not dependent on click-throughs. You simply give Blogads.com a 20% cut of ad revenues. Other popular ways to make money using blogs is to include links to affiliate sites. Every time a blogger clicks through to an affiliate site and makes a purchase, you get a commission. Commission Junction and LinkShare are two of the large affiliate marketing networks. Finally, if ads are not your style, add a PayPal or BitPass donation button to your blog. Kind of like the public television and public radio model, you ask readers who value your content and the effort it takes to produce it to donate an amount that they deem fair.

Marketing blogs

Blogging for business is another online tool being used more and more by companies to attract new customers and build brand loyalty among existing customers. Bob Bly, an acclaimed independent copywriter and direct marketing expert, shares his 25 years of marketing experience in his popular marketing blog. Bob and his fellow bloggers discuss everything from the pros and cons of paper direct mail marketing to whether direct marketers are likely to embrace blogging. For a list of marketing blogs and public relations blogs, visit Online-PR.com.

About business blogs

A business blog is a company's official blog. Becoming more common among both small and large businesses, more and more companies have dedicated marketing staff to maintain the company marketing blog. An example of a business that has embraced blogging for business as a way to build brand loyalty and solicit valuable customer feedback on its products is Stoneyfield Farm, a New England-based company organic dairy products company. Stoneyfield Farm maintains five different blogs targeted to the company's various niche market consumers. You can read the Stoneyfield Farm blogs by visiting the company's Web site. Blogging for business is also used in business-to-business marketing, and a respected blog on the topic is B2Blog.com's blog, a B2B and industrial marketing blog.