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  There's only so much traffic you can get from the homepage or About Us page of your company's website. Of course, those pages are critical for leads who are already interested in your products -- but they often won't attract traffic from top-of-the-funnel. That's where your blog comes into play. Your blog can be a general resource to help your website visitors even before those visitors are ready to purchase from you. For instance, let's say you sell products for e-commerce stores. You might attract some e-commerce owners who are already searching online for your products, but in most cases, the e-commerce owner isn't going to be ready to buy right out of the gate. Alternatively, if you begin blogging about tips to help the retail owner who is just starting out -- like "How to start a retail website", or "Benefits of e-commerce vs. physical store" -- you'll slowly attract an audience who enjoys your content and finds it useful. Then, wh

 In 2006, Boston-native Matt Kepnes quit his job and began traveling the world. He documented his travels in his now infamous blog, NomadicMatt.com. After about a year, thanks to tireless blogging efforts and SEO strategies that enabled him to rank on Google, he began pulling in $60,000. Matt also created e-books, and used sponsorships and affiliate marketing to make money. Additionally, he wrote a New York Times best-seller, "How to Travel the World on $50 a Day." Now, Matt's blog attracts 1.5 million visitors a month and grosses about $750,000 a year -- and he's become a well-known expert in the travel space. If you want to become known as an expert in a topic that interests you, from fashion to blogging to fitness, you can -- and, oftentimes, it starts with a blog.

 Typically, a business will use a blog to help the business's website rank on search engines. You can absolutely employ SEO tactics, or use paid ads, to help your company homepage rank on page one of Google -- but a more effective, long-term solution is blogging. To consider how your company can rank on search engines via a blog, we'll start with an example -- let's say you work for a web design start-up with very little online presence. You decide to spend the first year writing and posting regular blog content that strongly relates to web design. Over time, your traffic increases and other companies link to your site for information regarding web design. When this happens, Google recognizes your company as a legitimate source for web design information. Eventually (with a lot of trial and error), your blog posts begin ranking on page one of Google for terms like "web design", "website builder", and "e-commerce website". Then, one day, you sea

 A blog post is an individual web page on your website that dives into a particular sub-topic of your blog. For instance, let's say you start a fashion blog on your retail website. One blog post might be titled, "The Best Fall Shoes for 2019". The post ties back to your overall blog topic as a whole (fashion), but it also addresses a very particular sub-topic (fall shoes). Blog posts allow you to rank on search engines for a variety of keywords. In the above example, your blog post could enable your business to rank on Google for "fall shoes". When someone searches for fall shoes and comes across your blog post, they have access to the rest of your company's website. They might click "Products" after they read your post, and take a look at the clothing items your company sells. A blog post links back to your overall blog site. For instance, right now, you're on blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-blog. The "what-is-a-blog" section of

  What is a blog? First, let's go over a brief history -- in 1994, Swarthmore College student Justin Hall is credited with the creation of the first blog, Links.net. At the time, however, it wasn't considered a blog … just a personal homepage. In 1997, Jorn Barger, blogger for Robot Wisdom, coined the term "weblog", which was meant to describe his process for "logging the web" as he surfed the internet. The term "weblog" was shortened to "blog" in 1999, by programmer Peter Merholz. In the early stages, a blog was a personal web log or journal in which someone could share information or their opinion on a variety of topics. The information was posted reverse chronologically, so the most recent post would appear first.

Even if you're not sure what a blog is, you've no doubt come across one at some point in time. Perhaps you've stumbled across a blog when you've searched "healthy dinner recipes". In fact, if you're reading this, guess what? You're on a blog. (Very meta, I know.) If your business doesn't have a blog, you might want to reconsider — B2B marketers who use blogs receive 67% more leads than those who do not, and blogs have been rated the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.

  Ever wondered why the only colors many industries now offer you are black, white, silver, or gray? I love colors and it strikes me as odd how colors have been tuned out of so many products. While some colors are seasonal and faddish, others are perennials; a good color may last centuries, even if its use is up some decades, and down others. Colors capture our cultural subconscious and stay there for a long time. But somehow we’re now in a boring, monochromatic world. Ever wondered why the only colors many industries now offer you are black, white, silver, or gray? I love colors and it strikes me as odd how colors have been tuned out of so many products. While some colors are seasonal and faddish, others are perennials; a good color may last centuries, even if its use is up some decades, and down others. Colors capture our cultural subconscious and stay there for a long time. But somehow we’re now in a boring, monochromatic world. To industry, colors are a headache. They are tough to