Blogging has become incredibly popular because it is a great way for the blogger to share information and for the reader to learn. For those outside of the blogosphere, it can be difficult to fully understand the power of a blog. For those inside the blogosphere it can be difficult to clearly understand how to utilize the power of a blog for business. We often recommend to our business clients that they setup and maintain a blog and for those that actively participate in the blogosphere the rewards can be incredible.

Blogging for Business

Blogging for Business is simple if you know how to do it. There are several key components to blogging your way to success (without getting overwhelmed).

• Custom Designed Blog
• Custom Blog Web Address
• Update Your Blog Frequently
• The Write Stuff
• Include Links to Your website
• Be Personable
• Build a Following

A Custom Designed Blog

It's very easy to setup a blog these days through services like Blogger/Blogspot, Tumblr, etc... and we encourage you to look into these great free services. While this is a great please to start blogging, if you're going to blog to promote your business it's important to develop a custom layout that matches your website and your businesses brand. This will create a sense of continuity between your blog and your website so as visitors navigate back and forth between them they can do so comfortably, knowing that they're working with the same person/company. Plus, if you're going to take the time to publish valuable information to your blog, you want your visitors to associate that valuable information with your brand. We can help customize your blogspot blog to match your website and we can optimize it so you and your visitors can get the most out of the blog.

Custom Web Address

Setting up a blog with a service like blogspot is great, but did you know that you can improve your blog (and websites) search engine ranking by using a custom web address for your blog? By default when you setup a free blog the web addresss will be something like http://www.blogspot.com/Your-Blog-Name this means that anytime some other website owners finds an article of valuable on your blog and links to it, they are helping blogspot's search engine ranking. But if you setup that same blog (through blogspot) and customize a unique web address using your website's domain name, you can use that link power to improve your website's ranking in the search results. We can help you setup a blog with an address like: http://blog.your-website-address.com

Post Frequently

Forrester Research set out to discover why web users return to websites by interviewing 8,600 web-using households. 65% of the respondents returned to sites that frequently updated their content.

A blog is no different. You must post frequently:

1. So visitors know they can return frequently for more useful information
2. To keep the content from becoming stale
3. Because search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing love you for it
   

Think about it, how likely are you to refer a friend to a website or blog where the last update was dated several years ago?

The Write Stuff

Many of our clients ask us, "what should I blog about?" and that's a great question! There are three kinds of content that we usually recommend:

1. Write articles about your products/services, what happening in your industry or how your customers can make the most of your products/services
2. Make small updates about things happening withink your company (staff birthdays, specials, new products, upgrades, etc...)
3. Post top ten lists of relevant information.

Write Informative Articles - It's important to write quality articles about your products/services, what's happening in your industry or how your customers can make the most of their the products/services that you provide to them because people want information. For many people it's important to find out who the expert in your field is and do business with them. A blog is a great platform for you to become the expert in your field and writing a few informative articles will quickly demonstrate that to your audience. Don't forget a well written article about a very targeted topic can also rank very highly in search results and this can be a great way to drive extra traffic to your blog and ultimately to your website.

Small Internal Updates - Never understtmate the value of your own employees. Most people like to see their name of face online and oftent they're share that with their friends. Blogging about things happening inside your business can be easy and effective within your companies sphere of influence.

Top Ten Lists - We often refer to this kind of content as "link bait." Link bait does not have to take the form of a top ten list, but often does. Essnetially link bait is a page of valuable information that other websites will link to to provide their users with good information. If you've already read about our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services then you already know that inbound links from other website to your website are the most important factor when ranking sites in search results. This can have a major impact on the way your blog or website rank with the major search engines and improving that ranking can produce a lot of traffic.

Include Links to Your Website

Don't forget to create links within your articles to direct users to your main website. This is an incredibly valuable way to drive traffic to your website which is ultimately how you improve leads and sales!

Be Personable

Don't be afraid to have some personality. Web users appreciate a business that has personality and it will make you stand out. A blog is a great way to take off the suit and tie and put on your friend-face. Blog readers want to know they're interacting with a person, not a corporate monster. So loosen up, make your blog a conversation, not a business presentation.

Build a Following

Once you've prepared some great content, get it out there for people to see! A great way to do this is to use Social Media services like Twitter and Facebook. When people read a great blog article they often love to retweet those links to twitter, which will drive even more traffic to your blog. We can help setup your blog to make it really easy for your visitors to retweet, share on facebook and bookmark your blog articles.

To learn more about blogging, check out this article about 5 Ways Blogs Can Boost Your Business and this one about 5 Steps To Creating A Successful Company Blog.