Importance of Having a Blog or Website
March 22, 2008 – 06:00 amI wanted to talk a little bit a the importance of having a blog or website. Several people out there in the online community who are out to make money probably already has one of the two or both even. But there are several others who do not have either. Particularly the offline community who mainly just frequent websites and blogs to read. Keep in mind, the reason I am pointing out why it is important to have your own blog or website is mainly for entrepreneurial purposes but that doesn’t mean you can’t have one if you’re not an entrepreneur or that there aren’t other benefits outside of this list. Of course if you are not an entrepreneur, the importance of having a blog or website may be significant in other ways.
Reasons I believe having a blog or website is important for entrepreneurial purposes or business includes:
1] The ability to express your thoughts, opinion, and ideas out to the rest of the world. Your blog or website is not just merely a journal or representation of you, but rather a tool you can use to communicate with others and express your feelings. When done correctly, it can be a powerful tool that can not only help build your reputation, brand, and name, it can certainly help you generate vast amounts of income. I will attach a story below to illustrate this point further.
2] It is great for networking. Networking is just another fancy word for meeting other people of similar interests and collaborating or sharing your ideas. When you meet other people who share your interests, it helps you brainstorm or be creative in what you want to do and is can certainly help you learn a lot of new things. Things that may further your dreams or goals.
3] Get free stuff. Several bloggers out there get free stuff just for being famous among the online community. Not only is this great, but there are also contests where you can win prizes (some worth lots of money) just for being a blogger. I’ve listed some recent blog contests not too long ago and am currently promoting a Free Nintendo Wii giveaway myself.
These are just a few of the benefits you can get when you have your own blog or website. There are literally thousands to list (maybe more), but the idea I want to give you guys is, you’re really losing out by not having one. Most people think they need to know how to do web design or even program to have their own website or blog. This simply is not true. You can go with existing free services provided by Google or Wordpress, or host your own (which I highly recommend for a very small price).
To host your own, all you need is a domain name and webhosting (web host services “host” your site; they act as a hard drive to store your website information and design). You can sign up with cheap web hosting services such as BlueHost for as low as $6.95 a month and they’ll even include a free domain of your choice. Then you can go to download and install free wordpress themes and not have to worry about paying a web designer or do it yourself. Once you’ve got all this, you can start blogging right away. The set up is fairly simple and if you do not know how, just leave me a comment here or contact me directly and I’ll help you set one up.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a really good story I recently read that I think is great and I want to share it. As a disclaimer, I can not verify whether or not the story is true but it’s suppose to be according to the source I read it off of. The story goes to tell of a guy who works as a private physical therapist that caters to rich folks such as CEOs, sport figures, etc… One day he went golfing with one of these VERY successful entrepreneur as part of his job. He was monitoring his client’s (the entrepreneur) back pain and other things throughout the golf game. During the entire game, this entrepreneur received numerous phone calls. After they finished playing their game of golf, the two men (both the physical therapist and the entrepreneur) went back to the bar to relax and talk for a bit. The physical therapist asked his client what were all the phone calls all about. The entrepreneur told him “My business partner found a golf course for sale and was asking if I wanted to get in on it with him. I made a few calls to some other people I know and sold it for $4.2 million more.”
Over the course of just 5 hours while he was relaxing and playing golf (which he does as a hobby), he made $4.2 million dollars profit. Now that is an awesome story. How did he do it? He responded by saying “I have spent 35 years building my little black book of contacts that I carry with me at all times. It contains about a hundred people out of the thousands I have met. Each one is a hand-picked, valuable resource and personal friend”.
I love this because I have my own black book as well. The easiest way to get yourself out there and known, is to make a name for yourself. Having a blog or website can help you take this to a whole different level. Not only that, it looks better when you hand out your business card. Rather than having someone ask you a million and one question about who you are and what you do, you can briefly explain a little bit about yourself, and point them to your site where they can gain multitudes of information on you or your business. Keep in mind that a business card isn’t just a card with your contact info on it (if this is what your business card looks like, you’re seriously not optimizing your business), it is also a tool for you to build relationships with. The more relationships you build, the higher your chances for success are.
