I had a meeting with a client yesterday who was getting very discouraged because he hadn’t yet received any comments on his blog. His discouragement meant that he wasn’t blogging as often as he should because he wasn’t seeing the value in it. Unfortunately, this sporadic blogging can lead to a downward spiral which will lead to a self-fulfilling failure. While blogging at first can feel like you’re talking to yourself, patience and dedication almost always pay off.
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Oct
25
2010
14 Basic Blog Measurements
Once you’ve started blogging, you want to know how you’re doing, especially if you haven’t had much interaction (yet). Starting to blog can be frustrating since there’s not much feedback right away. Like other marketing efforts, blogging will be more successful if you measure results to see what’s working (and what’s not). Here are 14 basic blog measurements to help you get an idea of how your blog is doing… Most of these statistics are available in Google Analytics.
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Jun
29
2010
9 Reasons Why You Need to Have a Business Blog
It really isn’t a question anymore. You need to provide updated content online — whether that’s a blog or other content. In case you’re still not sure you need a blog for your business, here are nine reasons why I think you do.
But don’t take my word for it. What do you think?
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Nov
05
2009
Ask Sazbean – How do I make it easier for readers to share my blog posts?
Reader Sandi asked about how she can make it easier for readers to share posts on her blog (Thanks for the question, Sandi!) She noticed that I have a “Share this Article” link on all my posts and asked about how to add that to her own blog. The “Share this Article” link is added via a plugin for WordPress.
Aug
10
2009
Why I Moved Off WordPress.com
In December of last year we decided to move our blog from a hosted WordPress to WordPress.com (abbreviated as WP.com). I wrote about the advantages and disadvantages in the post Moving to WordPress.com – What to Consider. For several months it remained the right place for our blog and I still think it was the correct decision at the time. But many of the advantages of hosting with WordPress.com have actually been overridden by updates to the WordPress software. Here are the key reasons we went back to a hosted WordPress…
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Jul
17
2009
Be Careful What You Say – It May Affect Your Permanent Record
While I was teaching a Blogging for Business class out at Insights Group in Brighton yesterday, I mentioned that you need to be careful what you say online because it lasts for eternity (or you should consider that it does). People were pretty shocked to know that just because you delete something, it may still be available on the Internet somewhere.
Jul
02
2009
Why Blogging Is Important to Businesses
I was talking to a colleague the other day and she said she had a web developer tell her client that blogging wasn’t important for a business. Shocking. Blogging is one of the easiest ways to have constantly updated content on your website. It’s a way to show off your expertise, have an opinion, and get noticed. I think blogging is extremely important for businesses, here’s why:
Jun
05
2009
12 Ways to Get Ideas for Business Blogging
I have a lot of people ask me how I come up with ideas to blog about every day. It’s not that difficult – I just end up thinking quite a bit about various topics that can also be used for blog posts. Not all the time, mind you, but I do carry around various devices (iphone, pen & paper) to record ideas when they do hit. Here’s some ways to get ideas:
- Read – a lot – Other blogs, Twitter feeds, books. Anything related to your area of business (and some that aren’t) can spark a great blog post.
- Ask – your customers, your colleagues, your friends. What have they always wanted to know about (related to your business/industry)?
- Help – Provide helpful information, not only specific to your products and services, but related to your industry in general.
- Brainstorm – Sometimes just a regular old brainstorming session surfaces some great new post ideas.
- Spark – some controversy – Within reason, feel free to have and state an opinion related to your industry. Just do it in a friendly way, back up what you say and invite others to comment.
- Converse – with other bloggers. Post your thoughts on what others are blogging about.
- Share – links to other sources of information. Feel free to add your thoughts and comments.
- Review – products and services of interest to your readers. Skip your own (and probably those of your competitors).
- Support – take a look at questions your customers are frequently asking. If you have a FAQ (frequently asked questions), take the time to expand on them in various postings.
- Inform – Keep your readers aware of various events, industry happenings and news of interest.
- Create – If you’ve been able to gather some information or data that may be of interest to your readers/customers, create white papers and supporting blog posts to share your findings.
- Reuse – Take old posts and update them. If you do list posts like this one, take them and expand on the individual items in larger posts.
For tips on how to get started, check out today’s post over on Insights Group – Blogging, Are You?
How do you get ideas for business blogging?
(photo by apesara @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: content strategy, blogging strategy, blogging, content, strategy, business, marketing
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Related Articles:
- Do You Have a Blogging Strategy?
- 11 Tips for Getting Readers for Your Business Blog
- Business Blogging – What to Write
Feb
23
2009
Ask Sazbean – What's a Pingback?
Sandra from Brighton (MI), asks:
Can you explain what a pingback is?
A pingback is when another blog links to an article on your blog and their blogging software automatically notifies your blogging software of the link (also works with websites). Usually blogging software will then put a link on your article with a link to the page linking to it. Sounds a bit confusing, but it just lets you and your readers know who has linked to a particular article and posts a link to it so anyone can go see what was said.
Since part of blogging is having a conversation, pingbacks make it possible to know when someone may be saying something about what you’ve said. Reversely, if you comment on someone else’s articles, they’ll know about it. It’s also a way to get some extra traffic to your blog – readers often follow links to get more information on a particular subject.
Have a question you’d like an answer to? Just email us and we’d be happy to help.
Jan
12
2009
Do You Have a Blogging Strategy?
Many businesses have blogs. Many businesses feel they should start blogs. Why? Because everyone else is doing it. This isn’t a really strong reason to do anything in business – unless you want to be just like everyone else.
If you have a business blog or are thinking of starting one, take a few minutes to ponder why you are blogging. Hopefully your reasons involve helping and connecting with your customers, which should increase revenue and savings. Using these reasons as goals to form a blogging strategy can really help direct your efforts and produce better results.
Once you have an endpoint (your goals), it will be much easier to work backwards to figure out how to achieve your goals. What will you write about? Who in your company will be blogging? What will you incorporate into the design of your blog? How will you connect with your customers? Where will you syndicate your blog content? Will you use social media to increase awareness of your blog?
Do you have a business blog? What is your blogging strategy?
(photo by hi I’m h micheal @ Flickr CC)
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