Once you’ve decided to start blogging for your business, all the little steps may become overwhelming, so we’ve created this guide to get you started.
Blogging Software/Platform
First you need to decide where you’re going to blog – what software or website you’re going to use. Having the blog hosted by another company makes things very easy. Best of all, some of the best options are free, WordPress and Blogger. We use WordPress for all of our blogs, so I highly recommend it. The hosted version at WordPress.com has a full set of features, and with spending just a little bit extra, $25 per year, you can customize the theme and the domain name. Whatever blogging platform you chose, make sure you are comfortable with it and it can grow as your blog grows.
Domain Name
The domain name, or URL, for your blog is almost as important as the one for your business website. By leveraging your existing domain name (the one for your website), you can make it easier for people to find your blog. It also allows the content on your blog to count towards the search engine optimization (SEO) of your website. How? Let’s say your website domain name is mycompany.com. Use a blog domain name of something like blog.mycompany.com (see how it uses your domain name for the last part?). This is a bit trickier than using the default domain names that many blogging sites give you (mycompany.blogger.com), but pays off in the long run.
What to Write
Now that you have your blog all set up. What to write? Write whatever you think your customers would be interested in. Showcase your expertise. Try to help your customers by getting knowledge out of your head and onto your blog. Worried about losing competitive advantage? Actually by showcasing what you know and your willingness to help, you have a much bigger competitive advantage than keeping it all in your head.
How to Write
Writing for a blog is a bit different than other types of writing. Posts should be relatively short and to the point. Using headings or bullet points to highlight your major points make the posts easier to read. Titles should be catchy (think newspaper headlines). Adding images to break up the text of your posts makes the blog more visually appealing. Use a personable voice so readers find you approachable and encourage readers to voice their own opinions in comments.
Getting Readers
Add your blog link to your email, your website, your business cards, and anything else you send out to customers. Join social networks which target your intended audience and interact with the community. Once you’ve got a feel for the community, start adding comments to other posts and posting your own articles and blog posts. Also use social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter where you can syndicate content right from your blog. Use services like Feedburner to syndicate content from your blog onto your other websites. Getting readers takes a bit of effort and time, so we’ll go into more detail in a future post.
Be Patient
Getting readers can take time. Even blogs that are popular today took quite a bit of time to get that way (usually a year or more). You need to committ to posting regularly for a long period of time to see results. This also includes marketing your blog through the means discussed in Getting Readers above. Luckily, once you do get some readers, you should start to see your efforts quickly multiply as they tell others.
(photo by jez.atkinson @ Flickr CC)
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