Basically, a regular expression is a pattern describing a certain amount of text. Their name comes from the mathematical theory on which they are based. But we will not dig into that. Since most people including myself are lazy to type, you will usually find the name abbreviated to regex or regexp. I prefer regex, because it is easy to pronounce the plural "regexes". On this website, regular expressions are printed as regex. If your browser has proper support for cascading style sheets, the regex should be highlighted in red.

This first example is actually a perfectly valid regex. It is the most basic pattern, simply matching the literal text regex. A "match" is the piece of text, or sequence of bytes or characters that pattern was found to correspond to by the regex processing software. Matches are highlighted in blue on this site.

\b[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}\b is a more complex pattern. It describes a series of letters, digits, dots, underscores, percentage signs and hyphens, followed by an at sign, followed by another series of letters, digits and hyphens, finally followed by a single dot and between two and four letters. In other words: this pattern describes an email address.

A blog, orginally called a "web log", is a chronological online journal.  In a business setting, blogs are best used to provide valuable information to consumers on subjects relevant to the product being offered.  For instance, an auto insurance agent could use a blog to offer safety tips to drivers, what to do in the event of an accident, and so on.

By providing information that is directly relevant to your agency's services and products, you are providing keywords to search engines that potential customers search for when shopping for your services.  In addition, keeping fresh content on your website is one of the most effective ways to increase your page ranking with search engines. 

How to Start a Blog
Blogs are another way to brand your agency.  Therefore, to receive the most benefit from a blog, it should be integrated within your website.  The blog should have the same domain name and the same look and feel as your current website. 

There are several blog products available.  There are very elaborate blog software packages available, however, initially you may want to sign up for a free blog through a service such as Word Press or Google. While your abilities will be limited with a free blog service, they are a cost-effective way to get your feet wet.

Our gold plan members that subscribe to our Insurance Website Builder package enjoy built-in blogging capabilities with enhanced features on their websites.  Additional information can be found by visiting www.insurancewebsitebuilder.com.

What to Blog About?
The subjects available to an insurance agent are endless.  Take a moment and think about all of the questions you are asked on a daily basis.

• Is anyone covered to drive my vehicle?
• Do I have a grace period?
• What can I do to lower my premium?
• Replacement Cost vs Actual Cash Value
• Does Homeowner's Insurance Cover Flood?

You are answering these questions consistently.  Now all that is required is to sit down and write out those answers.

Advertise Your Blog
Let people know you have a blog.  Tell your customers, your companies, casual contacts, etc.  Advertising your blog can be as easy as including a link in your email signature, a note in letters sent to customers, or mentioning it in your on-hold message.  Also, using social media venues, such as Facebook and Twitter, to advertise your blog and blog posts is a very effective way to increase traffic to your website.

Initially creating a blog can appear to be an overwhelming and time consuming task, but it doesn't have to be.  Share the responsibility among your staff.  What better way is there to learn then to have to prepare to teach?  Assign each staff member a topic and give them time to research the topic.  There will be staff that are reluctant because they lack confidence in their writing abilities.  Writing is perfected with practice and blogging is the perfect opportunity to practice those skills.

Having an blog for your agency offers a list of benefits - increases your website traffic, develops loyalty and trust with customers and prospects, and expands your knowledge as you and your staff research topics.  The time you invest on your blog will offer great returns.