If you are contemplating setting up a blog to enhance your internet marketing, you need to know some of the basic choices you have. The biggest choice is to consider if you want to use a blog site as your host or if you want to host your own.

Hosting your blog on a blog site or hosting your own blog each has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Knowing the differences and pros and cons of each will help you decide what is best for you.

If you are looking for the simplest solution in setting up your internet marketing blog, then hosting it on a blog site is you best option. You can have your blog set up in a matter of minutes ready to post to or upload content to.

The two most popular of the blog sites that will host your blog is Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. They are very comparable in terms of what they offer and how they work. Both have similar steps for set up.

All you need to do is work through a few screens that ask you a few questions about how you want your blog set up. The most difficult of those questions is what to call your blog. There are a number of different style templates you choose from that will determine exactly how your blog will look. Those can be changed easily anytime you want.

The biggest downside to hosting your blog on a blog site is that you don’t have your domain url as your blog address. Your URL will be “your-blog-name/blogger.com” or “your-blog-name/wordpress.com”. You will always have the blogs domain as part of your URL. Not as professional looking as having your own domain.

The other disadvantage of blogs hosted by blog sites is that you don’t have a lot of control. You can change the formatting of the site according to a few dozen templates you can choose from. Other than that you are stuck with their designs.

You also have to live with the standard functions and options available on each site. You can not add your own options. You also have some restrictions you must comply with as to how you can utilize your blog.

If you want to host your own blog on your own domain, there are a few things you need. First, obviously you need your own domain. You also need a hosting server to install it on.

You can install it yourself if you like doing those kinds of things or you can have someone install it for you. One way or another you have to get it installed onto your hosting server.

Once you get by the installation, you’re basically home free. Now you have a lot of advantages to hosting the blog yourself. You have total freedom to do to your blog anything you want.

There are hundreds of templates available to customize your self hosted blog almost any way you can imagine. You can also customize any of the templates you use. You might change the colors, or you might add your website header logo to the blog.

One of the biggest advantages is your URL will be your domain name. It might be “your-domain.com/blog” Another thing you can do is add different functions. There are hundreds of add on programs that just plug in to your blog.

You can change to a different WYSIWYG editor if you want, you can add a calander, you can add different options for your sidebars and more. There are even programs you can plug in that help maximize your search engine optimization.

It boils down to this. If you want the simplest and quickest way to implement your internet marketing blog, you should use the blog hosted type. It will be a little more restricting but you will have the comfort of an easy set up.

If you want more flexibility, customization, control and your own domain name then you should host your own blog. It will be a little more challenging setting up, but once it is up you can do almost anything you want with it.

Either choice you make will provide you with a good, usable blog. You will have one more tool to enhance your internet marketing.

Every internet marketing blog must have a plan, why it has been set up in the Internet. Is it a part of a bigger communication mix and if yes, what job it has?

The target of my internet marketing blog has been from the very beginning to act as a support center, i,e. to deliver useful and fresh information, so that my fantastic readers would do better profits.

1.Trust.

The magic word, trust, is in the nutshell, what a marketing blog should build. The most effective building ingredients are honesty, freshness, interactivity, professionalism and related posts.

The trust comes through time and no one can buy it or order from Amazon. The trust is an image in the minds of the people, which they create little by little after they have read your writings.

2.A Blog Is Always Personal.

It is in a way a diary (which it is not). This means that when you write your post, the reader will always build a certain picture about yourself.

Because we internet business marketers are not Hemingways, the most important thing to the reader is that we write with the attitude that we want to help the reader. It is important to remember that no one wants to be an object of the sales pitch. So a good blogger must have a strong persuasion power.

3.Give Marketing Ideas.

That is the whole idea of the blog. Every single marketing person needs a constant flow of fresh marketing ideas to be able to reach his/her targets. The comments section includes normally also a great row of different ( and often critical ) marketing ideas.

4. Use Search Engine Optimization.

Optimized internet marketing blog posts can climb high on the search engine result pages, which brings a nice addition to the traffic. By doing the keyword research, you can reach nice results.

5.A Blog Is Quick And Easy To Use.

This feature is good and bad. Bad because so many have established a blog without proper planning and skills, but for those who have concentrated into blogging, it is really quick and easy tool for everyday usage.

6.An Internet Marketing Blog Pre-Sells.

I love the idea of pre-selling. If you look around you, it happens all the time. Your children pre-sells the idea of some new toy, your wife pre-sells the idea of a new, expensive trip and so on.

I argue that without pre-selling many nice idea would not be executed. The blog is a great place to presell ( because you cannot sell there ) lots of marketing ideas, which make the reader to click the link in the Bio Box.

Top Email Marketing Blogs

This article contains information on 3 of the top email marketing blogs. In no particular order, these blogs provide valuable commentary for critical challenges facing email marketers. Some content is suited for intermediate level marketers, while other posts will appeal to advanced email marketing practitioners.

1. http://email-marketing-strategies.com by Forest Bronzan

Overview: The Email Marketing Strategies blog provides analysis of email campaigns & strategies implemented by name-brand companies; mostly retail brands. The blog also provides tips and insight for a broad range of email marketing strategy.

About the Author (from the blog): Forest Bronzan is an internet marketing strategist and entrepreneur located in Redlands CA. Forest has extensive experience leading marketing and business development for international startups, along with developing strategic frameworks and deployment strategies for a wide range of email marketing programs.

2. www.banane.com/workblog by Anna Billstrom

Overview: The Adventures in Email Marketing blog covers a broad range of topics on email marketing, with additional discussion of SEM and SMM strategy.

About the Author (from the blog): I started this blog to talk about the issues and concerns surrounding ethical and effective email marketing. I’ve been focusing on email marketing since 1999. I have a background in OLAP datamart design, software development, integrated systems development, customer datamart modeling, and application integration. While I have done Web 2.0 and internet marketing consulting for startups, usually my contracts are with corporations that have large datasets.

3. http://blog.wordtothewise.com by Laura Atkins

Overview: The Word to the Wise blog has in depth discussion on a plethora of email marketing practices. Archived post topics range from authentication and deliverability to list management, feedback loops, and segmentation.

About the Author (from the blog): Laura Atkins is a founding partner of the anti-spam consultancy and software firm Word to the Wise. I have over seven years of experience in tracing Internet abuse and am a recognized leader in the anti-spam arena. At Word to the Wise, I advise clients on how to manage mailing risks, to respond to spam complaints, interact with ISPs, and navigate the ever changing and challenging world of email delivery. I also act as a neutral arbitrator during discussions with ISPs and blocklists.