The blogosphere is enormous, with plenty of free space just waiting for your business blog, as I explained in For Business Blogging, This Space For Free. Everybody’s there on the Internet, it seems –  blogging, reading blogs, commenting on blogs. You’re ready to get started, but how, you wonder, do you plan and execute a successful launch of your new electronic presence?  . “How will people know I’ve finally arrived at the blogfest?”

As Tutor2U, a British marketing firm explains, blogs are part of what is called “pull marketing”.  Potential clients come to your blog because they are searching for information about something you sell, something you know, or something you know how to do. In contrast with, say, sending out mass mailings, which is “push marketing”, blogging is meant to address specific audiences who go online to search for what they need or to look for information on something they need to know more about.

Still, people probably won’t know you’ve arrived, at least not for awhile.  It may take a number of weeks, perhaps even a number of months of persistently posting blog entries, before the search engines, most notably Google, Yahoo, and MSN, begin to include your blog in their “indexing” rankings.  Software programs called “spiders” or “web crawlers” weigh several factors: frequency (how often you update the blog), recency (have you updated the blog recently or did you give up after the first few weeks?), relevance to the key words searchers use in their inquiry, and longevity (how long your site has been active), in addition to the quality of the information in the blog.

Speaking of recency, an article I read very recently in Speaker Magazine talks about launches.  In this case, the article’s authors are offering tips to professional speakers who want to launch books they’ve written. “A great book launch begins with well-written sales copy.” (Now, here is the part that is so apropos for business owners launching blogs): “Don’t tell your prospects how great you are; tell them how great they will feel when the ideas in your book relieve the pain they’re experiencing.”

What wonderful advice for business bloggers!  Your blog isn’t about you, not at all – it’s about them! A wise man once said that everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) Use your blog to offer searchers the relevant, up to date information they came to find.  Give it to them in short paragraphs and in conversational style.  Then lead them to take action (in another blog post I’ll talk more about using testimonials and endorsements, plus success stories). 

However you do it, though, remember it’s all about them.  How great they’ll feel when they “tune into” your website, knowing their search has led them to exactly the place they needed!

Blogs are all about attracting attention and traffic, and when it comes to attracting attention, hip-hop star Kanye West’s a real master. Last summer, I posted a blog called Say It For You, Kanye West? after Sandra Rose claimed Kanye uses a ghost blogger.   Last week, I blogged about a new controversy (see Do Kanye West’s Blog Ties Tell The Truth?) accusing Kanye of using content and videos from other blogs without properly crediting the sources.

One older news item about Kanye seemed to consist of a happy ending to an even older controversy.  A couple of years ago, now-deceased daredevil Evel Kneivel sued Kanye West, claiming the rapper had copied the Kneivel signature look by wearing a red, white, and blue jumpsuit with an EK belt buckle for the song “Touch The Sky” in a West video album. Evel and Kanye were able to settle that trademark lawsuit through mediation.

There are several important blogging-related lessons to be gleaned here, I think.  First, as I stressed in “Ties That Tell The Truth In Blogging”, people come to blogs to find information.  Searchers need to be able to trust in that information, and, by inference, trust you.  So even if you’re putting your own spin on what you offer in your blog, the fairest thing to do is attribute any material or ideas you got from other writers or bloggers to those sources, either by quoting them directly or by inserting links in your blog to other websites.

The most important lesson about all these hip-hop star controversies, for me, has to do with the way Evel Kneivel came to change his mind about Kanye West.  In the course of the lawsuit, Kneivel had claimed that Kanye was “promoting his filth to the world”. According to USA Today.com , Kneivel was saying that, once he actually met West in person, he changed his mind about him.  “I thought he was a wonderful guy and quite a gentleman.”

Always keep in mind that blogs are more casual and conversational than other marketing pieces, and they are truly a mechanism for your readers to “meet” the real you.  Your blog is the place for you to convey your passion for your own business or area of professional expertise.  And passion, as blogging maven Ted Demopoulos is fond of saying, “is very effective for profit.”

I often reassure my business owner ghost-blogging clients that they needn’t fear critical comments that might be posted on their blogs, since even negative comments help blog rankings.  Nonetheless, after following Kanye West stories for almost a year now, I found the Evel-meets-good-Kanye tale quite refreshing.