Nearly 40% of U.S. companies use a blog for marketing purposes. Here are some important tips to keep in mind:

• Research shows that businesses that blog 4 to 5 times a week get over twice the traffic than those that blog less than four times per month. So start writing!
• Be sure to include keywords relevant to your industry.
• Optimize your titles by including those relevant keywords.
• Write about solutions to problems your clients face.
• Use your blog to earn your client's trust.
• Don't forget the Call to Action!

© Nikolais | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Blogging is just one piece of the puzzle in your social media marketing strategy. Yet it is the very foundation for your social media marketing. You use your blog as a starting place to post at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and any other social media sites you use.

To help you create a blogging marketing strategy, I have created a special report that includes basic blogging information, resources and a questionnaire.

The topics covered include:

• Getting started with the basics of blogging including why you should have a blog and what the benefits are of having a blog
• Three keys to successful blogging
• When to post, finding time to write, ideas on what to write
• Promoting your blog via social networking sites
• My personal recommendation on which blogging platform to use and how to get started affordably

You can download this free report now. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have.

It happens all the time in my web business; someone comes to me with 'everything ready'—they have a domain name, hosting, email, content; it's all ready to go. This will be the easiest website you've ever done, they say.

Wrong.

Invariably, they've registered the domain name with a service which is, well, limited. They've chosen user-friendly hosting, which means that it's not geek friendly. They have Yahoo email. They have all their content in a Word document, neatly formatted, with images precisely positioned.

The first step, in this case, is to start over.

The choice of hosting has to come after the choice of development technology. My platform of choice these days is WordPress, which means I need hosting on Linux or some other flavor of UNIX. Not Windows. I also need true FTP access for direct access to the files. Not an online file manager.

Email should be you@yourdomain.com, not yourdomain@yahoo.com. I can't 'move' that email, or work with it in any way, without costing you lots and lots of money.

Microsoft Word is not a web development tool. The beautiful formatting in your document will not transfer to the web automatically. It may transfer, partially, to WordPress, but the cleanup will take longer than starting over.

The images embedded in a Word document may very well be useless. Word is not an image management or editing tool. The images may be too small or at too low a resolution to be usable for your site. At the very least, extracting them from Word is going to cost, because it's a tedious process I don't enjoy.

This only covers web development, but the principle applies to choosing a cell phone, your next computer or printer, your internet service . . . any technology—and the people who'll be working with it on your behalf:

Step One is always, always to ask for professional advice from someone you trust.

Yes, this is still the blog of Chief Virtual Officer; you're not lost. In order to set up our new online learning environment, CVO Source, we're changing the layout and look of the blog to match the Source. The blog becomes the free portion of the Source, always available to anyone interested in the business of being a virtual worker.

If you're interested in even more, including audio, video, how-to articles, Q&A, and whatever else we can dream up together, sign up for CVO Source. For less than $5 a month, you'll get more business knowledge than you can possibly absorb. You might want to read more about it, but if you're ready right now, click the button below:

After payment you'll be taken to the Source where you can create a username and password. Your account will be approved promptly, and you can get started learning!

Perhaps you haven't started to blog yet for one of these reasons:

1. You have no idea what to write about
2. There's no time to blog
3. No one will read it anyway
4. You don't feel there's any ROI (return on investment)

But there are very compelling reasons to blog:

1. Search engines like blogs and prospects will be able to find what you have to offer more easily
2. Blogs allow your prospects and clients a way to converse and interact with you instantly
3. A blog is an easy, affordable way to connect with prospects and provide valuable education

An important factor often neglected is to respond to reader comments. You want to converse with your readers and that means you must reply to their comments.

What are your thoughts?