No doubt, over the past couple of years, there has been a surge in the number of network marketers that have created and maintained a blog as a part of their marketing efforts. I happen to be a strong proponent for the use of a blog to position oneself as a “trusted authority.” There is perhaps, no greater medium for establishing credibility in the marketplace than a well written, well designed, and properly SEO’d blog. However, is blogging a tool that every network marketer should employ? Today, I’d like to start out by briefly discussing a few of the greater benefits of blogging. Then tomorrow, we can answer that question directly.

First, for the person that has learned a bit about SEO, blogging can be an excellent means of generating “free” business leads. With a crystal clear understanding of the marketplace, marketers can determine what their prospects need and want and what questions those prospects are looking to have answered online. Armed with that knowledge, the marketer’s blog (or more specifically a page within the blog) can be crafted to rank strongly for those questions and to capture information for ideal prospects within the target market.

The second major benefit of blogging is that when done well, it positions the marketer as a trusted authority. Blogging gives the marketer the opportunity to present his or her expertise to the world. It gives marketers the opportunity to share their expertise with the world. It allows them to develop rapport with their target audience. And when a marketer successfully uses his or her authentic voice and vision to connect with the audience, while sharing information that the audience finds valuable, a trusted authority is born. This is the foundation of Attraction Marketing.

The final, and perhaps the best, benefit of blogging is the learning process that the blogger goes through. Learning should never, ever stop. Network marketers should repeatedly put themselves through the cycle of learn ‘ do ‘ teach. Oftentimes, the best learning comes from the teaching phase of this process and blogging is really just another form of teaching. Often we can learn more about a topic by organizing and articulating our thoughts and we also can learn a great deal as a result of the feedback received for our audience.

So, these are just a few of the benefits of using a blog to build a successful network marketing business. There are certainly more, but these three stand out in my mind as the most important. Tomorrow, we’ll take a loot at our initial question: Should every network marketer create a blog?

Dale Horton is a husband to a terrific wife, a father to two wonderful children, and has a passion for coaching home-based entrepreneurs. For more articles on the most critical factors to MLM business success, visit DaleHorton.TV.