Secrets to Success Deborah Cole Micek and John-Paul Micek

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Do it right the first time to avoid grief

The online marketplace is no longer a place controlled by a fat little man hiding behind his personal computer like the Wizard of Oz.

"New Media" has wrested control from the spammers, interrupters and the media elite. And, the new-media marketplace is a brave new world.

With new media comes the focus on people, participation and persuasion. Connections are the lifeblood of succeeding in this 21st-century marketplace. And blogging is one tool that is easily controlled by the entrepreneurial mind.

"All my WordPress sites are down," said the panicked voice coming over the phone. "Nothing was where it was supposed to be!"

This is just typical of the many horror stories I've heard when business people eagerly jump into the new-media marketplace.

Sure, blogs have finally gained the recognition they deserve in the business community as a viable marketing tool. But with all the hype, if you don't know some of the pitfalls or how to upload your own plugins to prevent spam on your site, you could find yourself in a great deal of trouble if you don't have a trusted programmer at your immediate disposal.

Check out RentaCoder.com or elance.com to find affordable programmers to join your team, or use a blogging platform that will take care of all the headaches for you.

One of the biggest reasons blogging attracts the attention of business owners is because of its ability to boost search-engine rankings and direct streams of highly targeted traffic to you. But it takes more than just setting up a blog and starting to post regularly to get results. Don't fall for the hype that just "having" a blog will work instant magic for your business.

You need to have a solid business-blogging strategy written out. And you definitely must have done your keyword research and be ready with the right strategies and tactics to apply on your business blogs.

You want to use your blog as a tool to get your message across quickly, and guaranteed. You do not want to waste valuable time trying to market your blog, or fix it when a free plugin messes up all the code on your site, or deletes all your content that you've worked so hard to put up.

It's happened to too many people, so be sure to do some research on the right business-blogging software to host your blog.

What's better than having thousands of virtual sales people knocking on thousands of doors for you? The fact is, your blog is a door that is instantly opened by people who want you to knock on their doors, hungry and eager for what you've got for them today that they can slurp up.

So do it right the first time and save yourself a daily headache.