You’ve probably read a great deal about blogging and what it can do for your business. Blogs bring traffic, they say. Blogs are a great way to build content. Blogs allow your readers to interact with you.

These can all be true. Of course, it all still depends on how you use your blog.

A blog on a topic no one but you cares about won’t bring in traffic. If you don’t post on your blog regularly, it certainly won’t magically build content. If you make it difficult for readers to comment on your posts, they are not terribly likely to interact with you.

There’s also more to it than just putting up a blog and posting to it. You probably heard about the “tag and ping” hype not that long ago. The principle is good, but your results will depend on the quality of your posts. Sites such as Technorati aren’t terribly tolerant of blog spam. It is my understanding that tag and ping is already less effective than it had been.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put tags on your posts or ping the blog directories. If you’re making quality posts, tag and ping away. But if it’s junk, don’t get your hopes up.

Is blogging better than just adding static pages to your website? It can be hard to say. It depends on how you do it. Blogging does have the advantage that your newest content is right up front, and you have an easy way to let people know that the new content is there.

There are plenty of blogging software choices out there. I use WordPress. I like the flexibility the plugins give me. I can do quite a bit with my blogs to make them more search engine friendly, write posts in advance, having WordPress ping when the posts actually appear, and much more.

WordPress is not perfect out of the box. To really make it work well in the search engines, you do need plugins. What I do is keep a folder of the plugins I use on most blogs so that all I have to do is upload the contents of that folder into the plugins folder, activate the plugins, make a few template changes and I’m in good shape.

My folder also contains my ping list to add to my blogs. It’s pretty long, and it can take some time for the pinging to complete. Here it is:

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping.php

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://ping.blogg.de/

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.britblog.com/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://rpc.wpkeys.com/

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogoon.net/ping/

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://www.imblogs.net/ping/

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.rssfwd.com/xmlrpc/api

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

Blogging is not necessarily a traffic miracle, but it is a good tool to use.

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