If you've held off on adding a blog to your website because you're not convinced that it's worth your time, you need to think again. Maintaining a blog requires a minimal amount of effort, and the payoff can be huge. At first glance, the connection between publishing a blog and achieving online marketing success may not be obvious. However, maintaining an active blog can increase website traffic and positively impact your online endeavours in a number of surprising ways. Before delving into the best examples, a word of caution: You need to be persistent. These benefits aren't going to materialize overnight.

Despite what skeptics may think, there is a very real return on investment for offline businesses that are spending marketing dollars on online marketing. A big part of what's driving that success? Social media.

The Trusted Authority. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? The truth is that anyone can become the trusted authority in their market. You don’t have to be the best, you don’t have to have the most knowledge, you don’t need any fancy initials after your last name. Becoming the Trusted Authority is all about marketing. It’s all about positioning, and with a little bit of effort, anyone can do it. Why on earth would you want to become the Trusted Authority in your market? That’s a great question and I can give you a number of reasons why you should work smart to become the Trusted Authority in your market. Here’s just a few: