Blogs are online journals that can be used in a variety of different ways. In a personal sense, families can keep track of each other across the globe by posting to a family blog. One family member posts, then another member adds their comment underneath the post, and so forth.

Businesses can announce new products and services, discounts, discontinued items, or holiday promotions in their blogs. I'll cover additional ideas for the use of a business blog further in this article.

The biggest challenge is to get your target audience to read your blog. That's why you need a "blog with a purpose." You need a reason for your audience to visit your blog on a regular basis. What would make your blog special to your audience? Why would they want to bookmark your blog? Why would they want to link to it and tell others? That should be your ultimate goal.

Think about your own site, and let's start talking about "blogs with a purpose."

Five Example Blogs with a Purpose

1. Free Directory Listings

For some time now, I've been steering people away from reciprocal linking, due to the inherent problems associated with it. Submitting to directories can certainly help your Web site from a link popularity standpoint, which we all know is crucial, but how do you know which directories to submit to? There are a lot of scammy directories out there, so you need to know which ones to stay away from. Plus, it can cost you a lot of money to submit to directories. What if your pocket book is a little tight at the moment?

Martin Preece at WebSEODesign came up with a novel idea. He decided to submit his site to free directories, and then keep track of when the site was accepted into each directory, the PR of the directory, whether he has to link back, and other statistics. He shares all of his experiences on his Web site for readers to follow. All you have to do is follow in his foot steps. Here's the link to the actual listing of free directories:

http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm

Then, he set up a free directory listings blog where he reports on the progress of his free directory reviews. He also writes "how to" articles in his blog, such as how to submit to directories.

http://webseodesign.com/blog/2005/04/free-directory-listing-101.html

Martin has created a "blog with a purpose." People visit his blog, because it benefits their Web sites and their link popularity building efforts. Why should they spend the time finding and researching directories when Martin will do it for them?

How does it benefit Martin? He's getting traffic to his site, building link popularity, gaining potential clients, and getting visibility from the search engines. It's a win/win situation for everyone.

Plus, his free-directory-listings.htm page isn't doing too badly in the rankings. It's #1 in MSN for "free directory listings" out of 6.5 million, and #14 in Yahoo! out of 130 million.

What has he done, in part, to achieve those rankings? He's linked to his free-directory-listings.htm page from his blog using absolute links and using "free directory listings" as the link (anchor) text.

For example, this is an absolute link:

<A HREF="http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm">free directory listings</A>

Below is a relative link. This is the type of linking convention most Web site owners use when linking to a page on his/her own Web site.

free directory listings

Tip: Always use absolute links when linking to interior pages of your site from your blog, and always use keyword phrases in your link text when pointing to those interior pages.

2. Wordtracker KEI Observation Deck

Yes, this sounds like blatant self promotion, but when you hear the story about this blog, you'll understand why it needs to be included in the article.

A few years ago, we had a plain old blog. We posted information about our site on the blog, articles, etc. The search engines loved it, but the visitors didn't. Why? We didn't give the Web audience a compelling reason to want to visit.

The blog was . . . boring.

My partner, John Alexander, and I teach Wordtracker strategies in our courses, and we believe that the key to success with any Web site begins with solid keyword research. We constantly hear students tell us how they can't find high KEI numbers in Wordtracker - that the competition is just too high.

So John came up with a fabulous idea. He set up the KEI Observation Deck on our blog. He spends about 10 minutes a day finding high KEI values and posting them on our blog. He's using the blog as a teaching tool, because we're educators.

People love it. He's proving to them that Wordtracker is full of high KEI values, if you only know how to find them. Affiliate marketers flock to his page to see what John will come up with next. SEOs have syndicated the blog through the RSS feed, so they can keep up with John's latest research. Search engines spider the page almost every day.

How is it benefiting Search Engine Workshops? John can use it to promote our other products and services. Wordtracker has linked to the blog, which is definitely a plus for the site.

The blog is no longer boring . . . it's effective -- a blog with a purpose.

3. Horseback Riding Tours

Bayard Fox of Equitours Worldwide Riding Vacations has a unique way of using his blog. After one of his horseback riding vacations, he writes an online journal, complete with pictures, and posts them to his new blog.

The guests who attend his vacations can visit his blog and link to it, and then tell their friends and family members to visit to read more about their recent vacation.

These vacations are in very exotic places, like Africa, India, and Uruguay. In other words, reading about them and seeing the pictures certainly makes you want to take a riding tour as well.

Why do people want to visit his blog? If you had taken a horseback riding tour in Africa, wouldn't you want to visit a site that had pictures of your trip, as well as a journal that documented the whole thing? Wouldn't you want to link to it?

What good does this do for Bayard and his company? It's obviously a perk for his customers, and we always want to take care of our customers. Plus, as the site gets more exposure in the search engines, more and more people will visit, outside of his existing customers.

His existing customers will pass along the link to friends and family members, and he'll pick up new customers that way. He'll gradually build link popularity from the blog as time goes on.

Tip: Be sure to link to additional pages of your site from your blog posts, so potential customers can read more information about products or services you mention on your blog. Use absolute links with keyword phrases in the link text. On your product pages, link to the blog. In Bayard's case, he would be linking to each riding tour's page.

If you have a newsletter, promote your blog through the newsletter. Be creative! Ask your customers to post their opinions about a new product line in the blog. Offer a 10% discount to those who post.

In Bayard's case, he could mention a recent riding tour, and give the URL of the blog where newsletter readers could see the pictures and journal entries.

4. Threadwatch

For this category of "blogs with a purpose," I wanted to list a blog that serves a purpose similar to that of an online forum.

Numerous ones come to mind, but none more appropriate or effective than Threadwatch.

Nick, the owner, takes great pride in his site, and it shows. What makes it different from other blogs of the same sort is that Nick has added a "twist." Here's Nick's concept:

"Finding the signal amongst the noise of internet marketing media takes too much of what we all value most: TIME. Threadwatch.org cuts through the chatter and produces a clear signal for the time starved professional Internet Marketer."

In other words, he distills information from other forums and posts that he feels are the best and most useful posts. Rather than your having to sort through mountains of information yourself, go to Threadwatch and let Nick do it for you.

What's in it for the visitor? You don't have to run all over forum land to learn SEO and Internet marketing information. It's all consolidated in one handy place: Threadwatch.

What's in it for Nick? He's has an extremely popular site now with a very loyal following. His link popularity is excellent, and I'm sure his visibility is as well. Congratulations, Nick!

Tip: Can you follow in Nick's footsteps and add a twist to a popular concept? Look how well it's worked out for Nick!

5. Cup of Sunshine

In the final example, the entire Web site is a blog. This Web site is for a coffee house in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, which also sells antiques. They didn't want to have to learn HTML to post to their site. They wanted something easy and non-technical.

So, their SEO set them up with a simple blog in about an hour. Now, they have a Web presence and can even sell their antiques online.

The blog is loaded with character, as you can see. They'll certainly have a lot of fun adding to it as time goes on.

The purpose of the blog is to be a Web site!

Now is the time for you to be creative.

Here are your goals for your "blog with a purpose":

• You need a reason for your buying audience to visit your blog.
• Your blog needs to be special to your audience in some way.
• Is your blog bookmarkable, and will people want to link to it?

Any business can set up a blog. Making your blog a "blog with a purpose" takes it a step beyond normal blogs. It gives it purpose and meaning. It gives it power.

Give it a try, and good luck!

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