What is a blog? The word is short for weblog. It's a sort of online log you can create and use to help build interest in your web site.

How do I set up a blog?

Starting a blog is very simple. I recommend www.blogger.com. This site steps you through the process which generally takes only a few minutes and bingo! You have a blog up and running. However, before you go to blogger.com, you might want to determine what you want to name your blog. Since my web site is devoted to a new technology called HD Radio, I named my blog HD Radio Fan. If your web site is devoted to, say, Costa Rica, you might want to name your blog “Living Big in Costa Rica,” or some such.

What do I put on my blog?

You can post any comment to your blog that occurs to you. I currently have 10 posts on my blog, with subjects that range from replies to people who don't think HD radio will succeed, to the report of a $200 million promotion that will be launched in support of HD radio next year.

The two things you want to do with your blog is attract comments from other people and steer them to your site. Thus, your comments should relate to the content on your site and, in some cases, you might want to be a bit controversial -- to attract “rebuttals.”

How do I publicize my blog?
The first thing you should so is put a link on your home page (or one of your most popular pages) to your blog. This will stimulate your visitors to visit your blog and, with luck, tell others about it.

A second way is to generate a PR release announcing the introduction of your blog and then send it to one of the free PR distribution services such as PR Free (www.prfree.com) or PR Leap (www.prleap.com). You can also find newsgroups on topics that relate to your blog and then post news of your blog on them. Finally, you might be able to find blogs that do not compete with your blog but that complement it and post comments designed to get people to your blog.

I find that it takes me only about 10 minutes to post a comment to my blog and even though my blog hasn't attracted much attention yet, I do believe it will pay off in the long run.

Here's another good tip. There;s a new technology called HD Radio that enables AM and FM radio stations to broadcast their programs digitally. This is a tremendous technological leap from today's familiar analog broadcasts. These digital broadcasts provide listeners with radically improved audio quality, more radio channels through multicasting, and new data services. To learn more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz.

Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio, old time radio and family finances.

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