The word ‘blog’ is a strange one. It’s been in use since around 1999, when it was shortened from the term ‘weblog’, or online journal.

Any business that wants to increase traffic to its website, and can arrange to write regular articles or updates, needs a blog.

On the internet information is king. The more you have the better, as long as it’s original and relevant to your business.

A blog is a tool that allows for the organisation and categorisation of articles on a website, which over time will build up a body of information that will generate its own website traffic.

It also provides a mechanism for creating targeted content on your website. For example, if you manage an accommodation business and the annual tourist event is coming up, you could write an article about the event, and even several more articles with updates as the event gets closer.

When people are searching for accommodation in your area and they search for the event, your website will be likely to appear in the search results. And even better, next year the content will already be on the website as an archive, so it will continue working for you.

There are many types of blogging software available, most of it is free. However to set it up properly takes some knowledge of the web. Get advice from your trusted website professional before committing your business to the blogosphere.

A browser is the software used to view websites on the internet.

Here is a list of the most popular browsers. They are all free, and can be downloaded and installed from their respective website. Internet Explorer only runs on Microsoft Windows, the others run on both Windows and Apple Mac.

Use these links to download the browser software:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Google Chrome

There used to be big differences in browser features and how they displayed websites, but these days all browsers display websites well, and have similar features.

Give them a try, you’ll need to use each one for a few days to really get a feel for it, and you will start to see subtle differences in the way websites display in each browser.

The internet was created in the late sixties, but didn’t really start to catch on until about 1995. Back then, it was never conceived that it would be used for many of the things that it’s being used for today.

Where is the internet heading? Many trends have already emerged.

People use the internet as the first point of call when searching for information – no longer a library or yellow pages.

Socialising and meeting new people is no longer limited by geographical boundaries. If Facebook were a country it would be the third most populous in the world, with over 400 million users networking with each other.

For business, high quality video conferencing in virtual boardrooms will become normal, those who have had a video call on Skype will have had a glimpse into this future.

Watching TV shows when they are scheduled is a thing of the past already. Video hire shops are limited by the stock they can hold. Video on demand over the internet will allow viewing anything anytime, without having to go out!

Some of these innovations are constrained by currently installed technology. The Australian government has proposed a National Broadband Network (NBN) which will improve internet speed, but it won’t come online for years, and it will still be slower than what other countries can access.

In the USA, Google is starting to build a network with speeds of 1 gigabit per second, 10 times faster than that proposed by the NBN.

The internet is the modern day equivalent of the 19th century railways, and the 20th century telephone. It warrants significant investment in infrastructure to enable Australia to engage with the world on a level field into the future.

Remember phone books? You know, those big heavy things that take up all that room on your bookshelf.

They still get delivered to us each year, but they’ve started getting smaller, not bigger. That’s because more businesses are moving their advertising budget onto the internet.

That makes sense when you consider that people are spending more time on the internet, and the ability to search is literally at their fingertips. Younger people especially are more likely to search online, rather than get out the big heavy books and wade through all the pages looking for something that could be found virtually instantaneously using Google.

Those Yellow Pages ads aren’t cheap, and they have to be renewed each year. Ok, so a website is often not that cheap either, but a basic online presence can be achieved at less cost than a yellow pages ad, and can continue to work for you year on year, as well as being accessible the world over.

As people transition from spending time offline, to spending more of their time online, you should consider increasing your online marketing budget to successfully engage your online customers.

Well, the title may be an overstatement, as there are worse fonts out there. But none seem to be so abused as Comic Sans. Once you get to know it’s signature lines and curves, you see it absolutely everywhere.

That in itself should be reason enough not to use it. If you want your message to stand out from the crowd, try using a font that’s different to what everyone else uses.

It’s harder to read than most other common fonts, and from a design perspective, it’s bad news unless you’re under 12 year of age.

Having a Twitter and Facebook page that’s regularly updated will bring more traffic to your website.

But just a minute, I hear you say, I don’t have time to go around updating all those websites – I don’t even really know what they’re all about!

Well, you don’t have to! What you do need is regular content, and if you’re in business that shouldn’t be a problem.

New products, specials, industry trends, client profiles, testimonials, general news, press releases – this is the kind of information you should be generating as a business, and at a frequency greater than once per month.

The best place to publish these things is in a blog attached to your website. From there everything can be automated – publish once and distribute to many places instantly.

To find out more, contact Arrowsmith Websites for a free consultation.